• Home
• About I³
• Project Finder
• People
• Resources
• Spotlights
• 2014 Conference

Home   /   about   /  

FAQs

I³ appears in the EHR solicitations for CREST, GSE, HBCU-UP, ITEST, LSAMP, MSP, Noyce, RDE, and TCUP. Can we submit a proposal if we don’t have an existing CREST, GSE, HBCU-UP, ITEST, LSAMP, MSP, Noyce, RDE, or TCUP award on our campus?

Answer: Yes, you may submit a proposal. You don't need to have an existing CREST, GSE, HBCU-UP, ITEST, LSAMP, MSP, Noyce, RDE, or TCUP award on your campus in order to submit a proposal, although it is expected that your campus(es) will have one or more EHR awards and that these awards will collaborate around one or more of the I³ integrative themes, unless the proposal is exclusively for research. For proposals exclusively for research, your campus does not necessarily need to have existing awards from EHR. Proposals exclusively for research may be submitted by any eligible organization, as described in the NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide.

Does it matter to which solicitation we submit our proposal?

Answer: No, it does not matter to which solicitation you submit your proposal. The description of I³ and the review criteria for I³ proposals are the same in all nine solicitations. All proposals submitted to I³ through these programs have a common due date (April 7, 2010) and will be reviewed in competition with one another.

I³ clearly intends to bring together projects funded on a university campus(es) by the EHR Directorate at NSF. Can we include in our proposal other NSF-funded projects? Can we include projects funded by other governmental agencies? Private organizations and foundations?

Answer: In addition to awards funded by EHR on a university campus(es), you may also include in your proposed project other awards/projects with a STEM educational focus, including other NSF-funded awards, as well as STEM educational projects funded by other governmental agencies, private organizations, and foundations. A proposed I³ project with a focus on critical educational junctures might, for example, bring together on a campus a GK-12 award, an NSF-funded MSP, an ED–funded MSP, and other projects with a common STEM educational purpose.

Are proposals expected to address all five I³ goals?

Answer: Proposals for STEM educational- or related-research only are expected to address one or more of the I³ integrative themes of broadening participation, critical educational junctures, globally engaged workforce, or the integration of research and education and to do so in the context of institutional integration; research-only proposals may also focus on institutional integration per se. All other proposals are expected to focus their work on one or more of the integrative themes of the solicitation (broadening participation, critical educational junctures, globally engaged workforce, or the integration of research and education) and, additionally, to articulate a vision and plan of work, along with an evaluation plan, to increase synergy and collaboration across NSF-funded projects and within/between institutions, towards an educational environment where artificial boundaries are significantly reduced and the student experience is more fully integrated; and expand and deepen the impact of NSF-funded projects and enhance their sustainability.

My institution would like to bring related NSF projects together on two integrative themes, broadening participation and critical educational junctures. Can I submit one proposal with a primary theme of broadening participation to CREST and a second proposal with a primary theme of critical educational junctures to RDE?

Answer: An institution may submit only one proposal to I³ for this deadline. You may bring together the two themes of broadening participation and critical educational junctures in a single proposal, but you may not submit one proposal to CREST and a second proposal to RDE for the same deadline. An institution may not receive more than one I³ award.

Can we submit a proposal if we don’t have any EHR-funded awards on our campus, but we have several other NSF-funded awards and we want to collaborate and integrate our educational efforts for those awards?

Answer: I³ calls for (a) proposals for research on institutional integration, commensurate with the I³ goals stated in the solicitation, and (b) proposals that bring together projects on a campus(es) around a common integrative theme(s) commensurate with the I³ goals stated in the solicitation. Proposals exclusively for research may be submitted by a university or other eligible organization with no EHR-funded awards. All other proposals must bring together some EHR-funded awards on a university campus(es), with or without other NSF-awards, around one or more common integrative themes.

Are proposals that focus on integration at one institution preferred over those that emphasize awards at multiple institutions in a region?

Answer: No. Neither inter- or intra-institutional integration is preferred over the other. There is interest in proposals from all types of institutions and from institutional partnerships that incorporate a depth and quality of creative, coherent, and strategic actions that extend beyond commonplace approaches to normal institutional operations.

Are proposals that focus on several integrative themes preferred over those that address a single theme?

Answer: No. Proposals may focus on a single integrative theme or on more than one. There is interest in proposals from all types of institutions and from institutional partnerships that incorporate a depth and quality of creative, coherent, and strategic actions that extend beyond commonplace approaches to normal institutional operations.

If we submit a proposal to I³, does this affect the number of proposals we can submit to any of the nine programs participating in I³?

Answer: No. Independent of I³, some programs participating in I³ have a limit on the number of non-I³ proposals that can be submitted and some do not. Those limitations apply. In addition to those limitations, however, an institution may submit a single proposal to the I³ competition. As an example, ITEST and RDE have no limitations on the number of non-I³ proposals that an institution may submit. So, an institution might submit four proposals to ITEST and two to RDE. In addition, an institution may submit one proposal to I³ through any participating I³ program, for a total of seven submissions.

Can we combine in a single proposal (a) research on, for example, broadening participation in the context of institutional integration, with (b) an implementation project that integrates the work of several awards on our campus around the same theme?

Answer: Yes. The proposal must represent a single submission from your institution, with a request for funding that does not exceed $ 250,000 per year, for a total not to exceed $ 1.25 million over five years. Since your project is not for research only, the university provost or equivalent chief academic officer must be the Principal Investigator.

Our institution plans to bring together five or more projects in our institutional submission. FastLane currently provides for one Principal Investigator and up to four co-Principal Investigators. It would help to solidify our campus partnership if a co-Principal Investigator could be listed from each of the participating projects on our campus. Is it possible to list more than four co-Principal Investigators?

Answer: Your interest in listing more than four co-Principal Investigators is understandable, and we have looked into that possibility. There is a rationale, however, for not expanding the number of co-Principal Investigators for the FastLane submission. Co-Principal Investigators are considered to have the same responsibilities as the Principal Investigator. An overdue NSF Final Project Report will delay any new, pending award to any of the project’s Principal or co-Principal Investigators. NSF has attempted to balance the formal recognition factor for large numbers of co-Principal Investigators against the burden that it may create. NSF does not at this time plan a change in the number of co-Principal Investigators that can be submitted in FastLane.

We have an interest in getting some information about the I³ awards made from the previous two competitions. How can we find out more?

Answer: Awards from the first competition in Fiscal Year 2008 were made to six institutions of higher education:

0833338 University of Washington 0833364 University of Colorado at Boulder 0833434 Georgia Institute of Technology 0833439 University of Florida 0833461 Louisiana State University 0833482 University of Hawaii: Kapiolani Community College

Awards from the second competition (spring 2009) were made very recently to seven institutions of higher education:

0930018 Vanderbilt University 0930067 Fort Belknap College 0930109 Arizona State University 0930134 Rutgers University, New Brunswick 0930182 Michigan State University 0930242 CUNY New York College of Technology 0930257 Texas Tech University

Information on each project, including project abstract, is available at the NSF homepage http://www.nsf.gov, under “Awards.” Additional information on awards from the first competition (Fiscal Year 2008) may be found in NSF News Release “Catalyzing Change” at http://www.nsf.gov/news/newssumm.jsp?cntnid=114166&org=NSF&from=news. Additional information on awards from the second competition is available at http://www.nsf.gov/news/newssumm.jsp?cntnid=116094&org=NSF&from=news .

If we have other specific questions, are there program directors in EHR who we can contact?

Answer: Yes. Any of the program directors below may be contacted:

Kathleen Bergin, kbergin@nsf.gov, 703-292-5171
Sylvia James, sjames@nsf.gov, 703-292-5333
Victor Santiago, vsantiag@nsf.gov, 703-292-4673