There are some excellent funding opportunities in this week’s round up. The USDA just announced that their Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program is accepting applications. These grants are designed to provide access to education, training, and health care resources for rural Americans. Reentry Projects have also been released and these funds aim to enhance both adult and young adult reentry strategies through collaboration with the field to identify and respond to emerging or chronic reentry challenges. Funding is being provided by the National Science Foundation to support research and development proposals related to new approaches to pre-K-12 STEM teaching and learning.
Utilities Programs
Grant Title: Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program
Grant Info: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=302597
Details: DLT grants are designed to provide access to education, training, and health care resources for rural Americans. The DLT Program is authorized by 7 U.S.C. 950aaa and provides financial assistance to encourage and improve telemedicine and distance learning services in rural areas through the use of telecommunications, computer networks, and related advanced technologies that students, teachers, medical professionals, and rural residents can use. The regulation for the DLT Program can be found at 7 CFR part 1734 Subpart B. The grants, which are awarded through a competitive process, may be used to fund telecommunications-enabled information, audio and video equipment, transmission facilities, and related advanced technologies which extend educational and medical applications into rural areas. Grants are intended to benefit end users in rural areas, who are often not in the same location as the source of the educational or health care service.
Employment and Training Administration
Grant Title: Reentry Projects (RP)
Grant Info: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=302573
Details: The Employment and Training Administration (ETA), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL, the Department, or we), announces the availability of approximately $82.5 million in grant funds authorized by Section 169 of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which authorizes research and evaluations to improve the management and effectiveness of workforce programs and activities. Through this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), ETA seeks to enhance both adult and young adult reentry strategies through collaboration with the field to identify and respond to emerging or chronic reentry challenges. This FOA provides the opportunity for organizations to build customized projects. Applicants must propose evidence-based and evidence-informed interventions, new interventions that theory or research suggests are promising, or a combination of both that lead to increased employment outcomes for their target populations. The Department is especially interested in program models that offer apprenticeship opportunities. These apprenticeship opportunities include registered, industry-recognized, and pre-apprenticeships. Another focus of this initiative is to assist communities in planning and implementing comprehensive "reentry" programs to address the full range of challenges involved in helping formerly incarcerated adults and young adults who have been involved in the juvenile or adult justice system make successful transitions back to the community. The intent of this initiative is to protect community safety by ensuring that these individuals: • Become productive, responsible, and law-abiding members of society; • Are provided with positive opportunities to engage in pro-social activities, such as employment and/or education; • Maintain long-term employment; • Sustain a stable residence; and • Successfully address their substance abuse issues and mental health needs, as applicable, through partnerships with local programs. These projects will serve either young adults between the ages of 18 to 24 who have been involved in the juvenile or adult justice system, including high school dropouts, or adults ages 25 or older who were formerly incarcerated in the adult criminal justice system and released from prison or jail within 180 days of enrollment. Applicants may submit up to two (2) applications in response to this FOA, a maximum of one (1) to serve adults and a maximum of one (1) to serve young adults. Each application may only propose to serve one target population, and applicants may not serve young adults and adults in the same program. Applicants may be selected to receive up to two (2) grant awards. In addition, eligible applicants must choose to apply as either an intermediary organization (IO)(for the purpose of this Announcement, intermediary organizations are defined as organizations that have an affiliate network or offices in at least three communities and across at least two states) or as a non-intermediary organization (NIO) (for the purpose of the Announcement, non-intermediary organizations are those with single sites or multiple sites within one state). Finally, all projects must serve high-crime, high-poverty communities.
Grant Title: STEM + Computing K-12 Education
Grant Info: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=302693
Details: An innovative science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computing (STEM+C) workforce and well-educated citizenry are crucial to the Nation's prosperity, security and competitiveness. Preparation for the future workforce must begin in the earliest grades from preK-12, where students need to learn not only the science and mathematics central to these areas, but also how computational thinking is integral to STEM disciplines. Because of the powerful innovation and application of computing in STEM disciplines, there is an urgent need for real-world, interdisciplinary, and computational preparation of students from the early grades through high school (preK-12) that will provide a strong foundation for mid-level technical careers and for continuing education in higher education. This is particularly important in the key science areas described in the National Science Foundation’s <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/big_ideas/">Big Ideas for Future NSF Investment</a>. The STEM+C program supports research and development proposals related to new approaches to pre-K-12 STEM teaching and learning related to Harnessing the Data Revolution, Convergence Research and the Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier. The STEM+C Program focuses on research and development of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to the integration of computing within STEM teaching and learning for preK-12 students in both formal and informal settings. The STEM+C program supports research on how students learn to think computationally to solve interdisciplinary problems in science and mathematics. The program supports research and development that builds on evidence-based teacher preparation or professional development activities that enable teachers to provide excellent instruction on the integration of computation and STEM disciplines. Proposals should describe projects that are grounded in prior evidence and theory, are innovative or potentially transformative, and that will generate and build knowledge about the integration of computing and one or more STEM disciplines at the preK-12 level. A proposal submitted to this program description should describe the integration of computing with one or more STEM disciplines. A proposal may focus on studies on the effects of integrating computational thinking with STEM disciplines or the challenges of implementing these potentially disruptive educational interventions. Proposed projects may develop models, assessments, and technological tools to support teaching and learning in this area as well as conduct research on these models, assessments, and tools. Outcomes of projects should enable the Nation to have a future workforce with knowledge of computational thinking integrated with STEM disciplines, and students prepared and interested in careers in the skilled technical work force or further education and science careers.