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2012 Collegiate Inventors Competition Now Accepting Entries

Online Application Deadline: June 15, 2012

The Collegiate Inventors Competition has recognized, rewarded, and encouraged hundreds of students to share their inventive ideas with the world. The Competition promotes exploration in invention, science, engineering, technology, and other creative endeavors and provides a window on the technologies from which society will benefit in the future. You'll also meet other top young inventors from around the country, have your idea showcased on a national stage, and compete for over $100,000 in prizes including a $15,000 top prize for Graduate students and $12,500 for Undergraduate students. Your advisor wins a cash prize too. The deadline is June 15, 2012.

For additional information visit: http://www.invent.org/collegiate

NIH Undergraduate Design Challenge- Technology Solutions in Health Care

Online Application Deadline: May 26, 2012

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) DEBUT Challenge is open to teams of undergraduate students working on projects that develop innovative solutions to unmet health and clinical problems. NIBIB's mission is to improve health by leading the development and accelerating the application of biomedical technologies. The goals of the challenge are 1) to provide undergraduate students valuable experiences such as working in teams, identifying unmet clinical needs, and designing, building and debugging solutions for such open-ended problems; 2) to generate novel, innovative tools to improve healthcare, consistent with NIBIB's purpose to support research, training, the dissemination of health information, and other programs with respect to biomedical imaging and engineering and associated technologies and modalities with biomedical applications; and 3) to highlight and acknowledge the contributions and accomplishments of undergraduate students. The submission period opens January 3, 2012 and runs through May 26.

For more information visit: http://debut.challenge.gov

2012 Undergraduate Research Program - Call for Applications

Deadline Date: 5:00 P.M., Monday April 30, 2012

Web: North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities

Contact: fontaine@ncicu.org

North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (NCICU) is pleased to announce the 2012 NCICU Undergraduate Research Program - Call for Applications.

NCICU again is offering stipends for students performing undergraduate research at NCICU's 36 colleges and universities in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields of study. These stipends will be awarded competitively. Recipients are required to participate in the annual "State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium" (SNCURCS), which is sponsored through a collaborative partnership between NCICU and the University of North Carolina.

The 2012 Symposium will take place on Saturday, November 17, at Duke University. Formal registration forms for the Symposium will be distributed in the fall, once the 2012-2013 academic year begins. Students also are encouraged to submit information regarding their projects for publication inExplorations, the Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities for the State of North Carolina. Information about Explorations will be sent in a separate e-mail.

All students wishing to participate in the NCICU Undergraduate Research Program must have a faculty advisor. The faculty advisor must agree to mentor the student's participation in SNCURCS. All student stipend applications must be signed by the faculty advisor. Up to five student stipends currently are available to be awarded. Stipend awards will be made in the amount of $750 each.

NOTE: "Science" as part of STEM is defined as a natural or physical science and does not include social sciences (psychology, sociology, human environmental sciences, etc.). However, all students who are performing research - whether in a STEM field of study or not - are encouraged to present at the Symposium in November.

Attached you will find the NCICU Undergraduate Research Program student stipend application form, which you may distribute to students wishing to apply. Application forms must be returned in Adobe PDF format via email to fontaine@ncicu.org by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, April 30. Please do not fax student applications to NCICU.

To ensure low-income students are not prohibited from participating in undergraduate research due to financial barriers, some stipends are reserved for students who qualify for financial need as determined by the federal needs analysis formula. For this reason, a question on the attached stipend application form asks whether the student qualifies for financial need.

Undergraduate Biotechnology Research Fellowships

Student oriented.

Deadline Date: 12:00 NOON, January 25, 2012

Web: Undergraduate Biotechnology Research Fellowships

Supports student research fellowships to encourage interest in and preparation for career in biotechnology.

Core Laboratory Facilities of North Carolina

Student and Faculty oriented.

Web: Core Lab

The Center's Core Facilities webpage provides basic links to core laboratory facilities in North Carolina that support research in the life sciences and other biotechnology-related fields of study. These core facilities are located at university, non-profit and commercial research institutions across the state and provide services and/or equipment that are available to users outside of the home institution. See details on the site about how to add your core lab to the webpage.

Biotechnology Event Sponsorships

Web: Biotechnology Event Sponsorships

Supports events advancing the understanding or application of biotechnology to benefit North Carolina.

Biotechnology Meeting Grants

Web: Biotechnology Meeting Grants

Supports national and international meetings which advance the understanding or application of biotechnology and focus national and international attention on the North Carolina scientific community.

Regional Development Grants

Web: Regional Development Grants

The goal of the Regional Development Grant Program is to build capacity through collaborative projects, providing a foundational resource for biotechnology economic development in communities statewide. Preproposals are required.

The Greenwall Foundation Faculty Scholars Program in Bioethics

Junior Faculty Oriented.

Web: The Greenwall Foundation

Description: The Greenwall Faculty Scholars Program is a career development program that enables junior faculty members to carry out original research on policy and moral dilemmas at the intersection of ethics and the life sciences. To maximize Scholars' development, three years of support are provided, requiring a 50% time commitment (carefully monitored) in each of the three years. Faculty Scholars will be selected on the basis of their achievements, the strength of their research project, their commitment to the field of bioethics, and support from their home institution. While the amount and quality of an applicant's research in bioethics will count favorably towards his/her application, outstanding candidates with less direct experience in bioethics will also be considered.

Award Amount: Not identified

Eligibility: Applicants must be junior faculty members holding at least a 60% appointment in a tenure series at a university or non-profit research institute in the U.S. Priority will be given to applicants who have not yet been considered for tenure, who have not received a comparable career development award, and whose work will have an impact on public policy or clinical practice. Within this group, priority will be given to applicants whose research addresses innovative and emerging topics.

National Science Foundation (NSF) Discovery Research K-12 (DRK-12)

Collaborative student and faculty

Web: Discovery Research K-12 (DRK-12)

Description: This program seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students, teachers, administrators and parents. All DRK-12 projects should be framed around a research question or hypothesis that addresses an important need or topic in preK-12 STEM education. The emphasis in DRK-12 is on research projects that study the development, testing, deployment, effectiveness, and/or scale-up of innovative resources, models and tools. DRK-12 invites proposals that address immediate challenges that are facing preK-12 STEM education as well as those that anticipate a radically different structure and function of pre-K 12 teaching and learning. DRK-12 especially encourages proposals that challenge existing assumptions about learning and teaching within or across STEM fields, envision the future needs of learners, and consider new and innovative ways to support student and teacher learning. DRK-12 is particularly interested in projects that hold promise for identifying and developing the next generation of STEM innovators (NSB, 2010). There are four strands described in detail in the solicitation: 1) Assessment; 2) Learning; 3) Teaching; 4) Scale-up.DRK-12 projects are based on theories of learning, prior research and development. Projects reflect the needs of an increasingly diverse population as well as national, state, or discipline priorities. Outcomes include usable and scalable resources, models, tools, and contributions to the knowledge about STEM teaching and learning. In addition, teachers and students who participate in DRK-12 studies are expected to enhance their understanding and use of STEM content, practices and skills. The DRK-12 program is primarily concerned with the goals and effectiveness of formal education, but recognizes that learning is not limited to formal school environments and times. The program encourages projects to draw from knowledge and practice of learning in out-of-school and informal settings. Most young people and STEM professionals today use powerful technologies in the activities of their everyday lives. New knowledge, new ways of thinking, and new ways of finding and processing information drive our society and economy. Many of the resources, models and tools researched and developed by DRK-12 will provide innovative ways to use current and emerging technologies to transform STEM education.DRK-12 recognizes that outstanding teaching is a critical and integral component of this improvement process. While Strand 3 has a specific focus on resources, models and tools for teacher education and the impact of those models on student learning, projects submitted to the other strands may also include teacher support materials or professional development components in support of student learning. Projects submitted to the Learning strand might also include the development of assessments related to the specific goals of the project. Some DRK-12 projects focus on a specific STEM discipline or concept, while others have cross-disciplinary, cross-grade level content, but all projects must demonstrate that the content is important from both a disciplinary and learning perspective. Full Research and Development projects are expected to lead to successful dissemination and adoption of findings or products in the preK-12 enterprise at a scale beyond that directly supported by the grant.

Award Amount: It is anticipated that about 15-20 Exploratory awards, 15-20 Full Research and Development awards, and 5 Conference/Workshop awards will be made in FY 2012, pending availability of funds. Normal limits for funding requests of DRK-12 proposals are as follows: (1) Exploratory projects up to $450,000 with duration up to three years; (2a) Full Research and Development projects up to $3,000,000 with duration up to four years; (2b) Full Research and Development projects with a primary focus on learning how to take proven STEM innovations to scale, up to $4,000,000 with a duration of four years; (3) Conference/Workshop projects up to $100,000 for duration up to two years.

Burroughs Wellcome Fund Collaborative Research Travel Grants

Faculty

Web: Collaborative Research Travel Grants

Description: This program provides travel grants that can be used both internationally and domestically to acquire new research techniques, to promote collaborations, and to attend courses. Candidates must hold a Ph.D. or studying in a Ph.D. program in mathematics, physics, chemistry, computer science, statistics, or engineering and are interested in investigating research opportunities in the biological sciences.

Award Amount: $15,000

Eligibility: This program is open to Ph.D. candidates, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty at degree-granting institutes in the U.S.

North Carolina Biotechnology Center Biotechnology Event Sponsorship

Web: Biotechnology Event Sponsorship

Description: This popular Biotechnology Center grant promotes and supports events advancing the understanding or application of biotechnology to benefit North Carolina. Events must promote information sharing and personal interaction focused on biotechnology research, education, or business.

Award Amount: $3,000

Eligibility: Any nonprofit organization planning a conference, workshop or other event in North Carolina focusing on biotechnology or its related aspects.