 Welcome to the webinar, everyone. Today, we are delighted to have Dr. Tunane Nakwe Whitley with us to share information about the track for Research Fellows Program of NSF EPSCORE, the established program to stimulate competitive research. Dr. Whitley is the program lead for this program, and so we're super grateful that she's agreed to do this webinar. Before we get started, I have a couple of housekeeping things to take care of. I'm Selena Kenyli, the Associate Director of New Mexico EPSCORE, and I'll be your host for today's webinar, along with Isis Cerna, who's working behind the scenes to make sure that everything runs smoothly. This webinar will last about an hour, and we're asking you all to enter your questions into the Q&A box, and Dr. Whitley will take them at the end of the presentation, and Isis will be monitoring our Q&A box to make sure that we get to everybody's questions. A recording and transcript of this webinar, including the, excluding the Q&A session, will be made available to view on our website, and we'll send you an email once those things are uploaded. And now a brief introduction of our speaker. So as an NSF EPSCORE program officer, Dr. Whitley currently manages a $107 million portfolio of 26 standard grants and cooperative agreements, and she focuses on building basic science research infrastructure, promoting economic development and broadening participation in STEM. She's also a molecular biologist, and her research of DNA repair and DNA signaling pathways offers insights towards the molecular biology of neuroscience, immunology, and cancer biology. She earned her PhD in pathology at the University of Chicago. We're thrilled to welcome Dr. Whitley to the Zoom screen. Thank you for the warm welcome. Happy New Year, everyone. It's great to see you. Well, see you. And it's great to be able to present this webinar today. What I'll do at this time is share my screen. So give me one second. Okay, and if you can just confirm that you can see the title. Looks good. Okay, sounds great. It's a pleasure to be here with you all. Thank you so much. Greetings from the National Science Foundation. Feel free to reach out to me anytime. I really appreciate all questions. In fact, if you're throwing questions into the chat or the Q&A box, even better, because I would love for this to be a conversation that we have at the end of the webinar. Again, as Selena said, my name is Chinonyu Nakwe Whitley. Folks call me Dr. Chi Chi, Dr. Whitley. It's all good. I'm a NSF program officer and happy to serve with the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, also known as EPSCOR. I'm offering this webinar to cover the most recently released solicitation for the Research Infrastructure Improvement EPSCOR Research Fellows opportunity. Please note today's date, January 23rd. Any information that is discussed in this webinar is current as of this date, so it's pretty great. What I hope to do is give you a brief overview of the EPSCOR Research Fellows opportunity, as well as best practices and requirements for proposal submission. I'll also touch upon the merit review criteria and frequently ask questions, and then we'll have closing remarks. So the primary goal for today's webinar is to talk to you about this wonderful opportunity that supports PIs from EPSCOR eligible institutions and the development of research collaborations. The solicitation number that was just released yesterday is NSF 24-528, and the opportunity provides $300,000 over two years. The deadline for this year's cycle is April 22nd, 2024 at the submitting institution's local time. Please feel free to access the solicitation using the web address below, and we will be providing slides from this webinar so that you can access the links on your own. Please note that while this webinar will discuss many aspects of the solicitation, we ask that you read the solicitation in its entirety. Thanks. So the NSF EPSCOR program, for those of you who are not familiar, is a congressionally mandated program. It originated in 1978 with a mission to build research capacity and advance the capability of eligible jurisdictions to conduct competitive research. And as a program, we advance geographic diversity and STEM through catalyzing research capability across and among targeted jurisdictions. These are states, territories, and commonwealths within the U.S. We're seeking to establish STEM professional development pathways and broaden participation of a variety of groups and institutions in STEM. We also hope to enable our PIs to affect engagement in STEM at national and global levels and impact jurisdictional economic development. EPSCOR's investment strategies seek to build capacity and as a result of these investments, positively impact EPSCOR jurisdictions. Term EPSCOR jurisdictions refers to states, commonwealths, and U.S. territories that are eligible for funding from the U.S. NSF EPSCOR program. And the commonwealths and territories are eligible for funding if they're most, sorry, and the states are eligible if their most recent five-year level of total NSF funding is equal to or less than 0.75% of the total NSF budget. The Chips and Science Act of 2022 effectively freezes NSF EPSCOR jurisdiction eligibility through fiscal year 2027. So at the end, this eligibility is monitored annually and is available via our website using the URL provided in the slide. Currently, there are 28 EPSCOR eligible jurisdictions and institutions within these jurisdictions are eligible for the EPSCOR's research fellows mechanism and as you can see, New Mexico is right there in the middle. This is why I'm here. EPSCOR research fellows mechanism arose in discussion with the broader EPSCOR community and during those discussions, the program recognized an opportunity to catalyze the career trajectories of the next generation of research leaders. This opportunity amounted to providing time for these leaders to develop new or expand current directions and to provide a pathway for strengthening research connections with partners nationwide. And so the EPSCOR research fellows mechanism provides opportunities for non-tenured and tenured mid-career investigators to further develop their individual research potential through extended visits to the nation's premier federal, private or academic institutions. This mechanism will provide fellows with the ability to learn new techniques, benefit from access to state-of-the-art equipment and facilities, strengthen collaborative partnerships and shift or extend their research towards transformative directions. This mechanism provides experiences that will benefit and positively impact the recipient's career in years to come. In alignment with EPSCOR's mission, the fellowship outcomes are also expected to enhance the research capacity of a fellow's home institution and or jurisdiction. Under the solicitation, there are two tracks, EPSCOR research fellows NSF and EPSCOR research fellows at NASA. For the EPSCOR research fellows NSF subtract, the host site and collaborator may be any research institution within the United States or its territories and any topic that NSF funds is eligible. For the EPSCOR research fellows at NASA subtract, host sites are specific NASA research centers and the topics are limited to those described in the solicitation. In addition, there are specific institution types that are eligible. PIs interested in this opportunity can find the research focus areas available through the website below and the link is also in the solicitation. Wardies will have the opportunity to collaborate for this subtract with a NASA subject matter expert or SME and this is for the duration of the award. The SME will serve as a research collaborator, a technical monitor and will have support from NASA to conduct extended collaborative visits with awardees. NASA EPSCOR supports matching faculty with collaborators in both the NSF EPSCOR research fellows at NSF and at NASA subtract. So both subtracts are supported by NASA and has received over 200 research focus areas that are used to match research investigators to work on research of important priorities to NASA. Research investigators are required to spend one to six months over two years with NASA scientists and our engineers and to initiate the match, the NASA EPSCOR office arranges an introductory meeting between research investigators and NASA scientists or engineers to start the collaboration. All eligible research investigators who are interested on working on NASA's RFA should email their interest to the NASA EPSCOR agency contact in the solicitation. In some cases, PIs might have prior research collaborations with NASA scientists or engineers. So please share this information with the NASA EPSCOR coordinator to proceed with a match if you'd like to match with this person. For this subtract and this subtract only, research investigators must be US citizens at some centers or at least lawful permanent residents. For the NSF subtract, there's not a citizenship requirement. All right, I'm gonna jump ahead really quickly. I'm gonna go through this really quickly because what you can do basically to find your collaborator at NASA is to send your CV using the contact information in the solicitation and that will help facilitate the meeting with a NASA research scientist. All right, so let's break down the budgetary request. Budgetary requests can be for a proposal duration of up to 24 months and total budget requests should not exceed $300,000. The 24 month award duration is intended to provide flexibility in planning fellowship logistics. But please note that while applicants can spread a one to six month time and effort request over two years, they should not propose a two year research project. Okay, so you should propose up to six months of work. The plan should focus primarily on the fellowship period of one to six months. Budget requests may include one six months of salary and fringe benefits to support the PI and the same to support one trainee level participant. Up to six months of support can be applied per person but not per year. And support can be for academic calendar or summer months and budget requests for tuition and insurance for the trainee may be included if it's appropriate. For the EPSCOR Research Fellows at NASA Opportunity, the expectation is that the supported trainee will be available for the entire duration of the project and that will avoid multiple rounds of onboarding at NASA facilities. Budget requests for travel expenses for the PI and trainee level researcher are no longer capped. So then you can make those requests as much as is reasonable. Multiple trips between the home and host site are allowed and where feasible PIs are expected to budget for lodging arrangements in a manner that's consistent with their institution's travel policy. We really, we strongly encourage you to consult your home institution's travel policy when constructing the travel budget. Please note that no salary may be requested for any host site personnel. For the host collaborator, sorry, however, up to $10,000 may be requested for the host collaborator to travel to fellowship-related locations, such as visiting the home site or the home institution upon invitation by the PI or for participation in conferences where collaborative work is presented. For EPSCOR Research Fellows at NASA Applicants, PIs may also request a Research Infrastructure Development Award from NASA EPSCOR. And NASA manages this process after the NSF award is issued. Please make sure not to include this request in budget requests to NSF. So when you submit your proposal, focus only on the budget that NSF will provide. Funding from this mechanism is not transferable if a PI takes a new position at an institution that is not within an EPSCOR jurisdiction. If this takes place, the fellowship award will be terminated. All right, so what goes in the proposal? Our expectation is that PIs will propose exciting and vibrant fellowship ideas that positively impact and transform a PI's individual career trajectory. So it's so important that you describe that. More broadly, it's expected that the fellowship will impact the research field, the home institution or jurisdiction. All proposals should include the motivation and research context for the research to be conducted, well-defined, well-reasoned, organized, research objectives that are driven by specific research questions or hypotheses, specific plans for the fellowship period, a discussion on how the benefits gained from the fellowships can be sustained beyond the funding period, a clear description of fellowship goals, performance metrics, and a timetable of activities. Successful proposals explain how or why the award will advance the PI's research program. For example, how will the fellowship provide opportunities to the PI that are otherwise unavailable? Successful proposals also describe how activities could lead to long-lasting impacts for both the PI's career and for the PI's home institution or jurisdiction. In addition, the plan should focus primarily on the fellowship period. The letters that are required for proposal submission. When you provide these letters, please provide them as supplementary documents. At least one letter is required from an appropriate supervisory administrator from the PI's home institution. The letter should confirm the institution's support of the PI's plans and particularly verify that the PI will receive release time from other academic duties to complete the project as proposed. This letter should also confirm the PI's employment status and tenure status of the home institution as it pertains to the eligibility for this mechanism. For the EPSCOR research fellows NSF track, one letter should come from the identified primary research collaborator or collaborators at the host site. This letter should confirm the collaborator's understanding of the goals and of the fellowship and provide evidence that demonstrates that the PI will receive support necessary to complete the proposed activities. Other letter should come from the appropriate administrative manager at the host institution. This letter should confirm that all necessary logistical arrangements will be provided to ensure that the project can proceed as proposed. These administrators may include site access, office space, cyber connectivity or other provisions. There are some rare cases where the PI believes that the primary research collaborator at the host site is also the appropriate administrative manager. If this is the case, the PI should contact program officer within the NSF EPSCOR office for guidance. For EPSCOR research fellows at NASA, this letter will be provided through the NASA EPSCOR agency contact. Additional letters from other parties may be submitted only if they are needed to verify specific tangible commitments that are related to the activities described in the proposal. For the EPSCOR research fellows at NASA Subtract Only, a fourth letter is required from institutions of higher education that are primarily undergraduate institutions. These institutions include accredited colleges and universities that award associates degrees, bachelor's degrees and master's degrees in NSF supported fields. The letter will verify that the submitting institution has awarded 20 or fewer PhD or doctoral degrees of science in all NSF fields during the past two academic years. So we're gonna touch upon the merit review criteria at this time. You can look in the solicitation for the NSF approved, or excuse me, the National Science Board approved merit review criteria of intellectual merit and broader impacts. But what I would like to do at this time is a deep dive on the solicitation specific criteria. These criteria will be posed to reviewers when they're evaluating your proposal. So when we hand your proposal to a reviewer for merit review, we will ask the following questions. What evidence is presented to demonstrate the proposed research outcomes can be achieved within the constraints of the fellowship period with the work being performed primarily at the whole site? How will the fellowship have a transformative impact on the trajectory of the PI's research career goals during and after the funding period? How will the fellowship yield tangible benefits to the home institution or jurisdiction beyond the individual benefits to the PI? What evidence is there that the home institution and host site are each committing the necessary resources, both scientific and administrative, to lend confidence that the fellowship project will be successful in achieving its intended outcomes? All right, before I wrap up, I wanna address some frequently asked questions. And we are in our, let's say six cycle. You're good, we've gotten these questions quite a bit. So I'm hoping that they'll be helpful. All right, can I apply if my eligibility will change after the solicitation deadline? Do I have to conduct my fellowship within an EPSCOR jurisdiction? Well, the solicitation states that at institutions of higher education an applicant must hold a non-tenured faculty appointment or a tenured appointment up to the assistant or associate professor level. Eligibility to participate in this mechanism is determined by your tenure status and when your tenure will go into effect as of the proposal deadline date. So if you've been notified that you've received tenure or promotion, but the status of your promotion has not taken effect by the proposal deadline date, you are eligible for this opportunity. Please keep in mind that you will need to provide a letter of support from your home institution's administrative manager that verifies this nuance. So the second question, although PIs must be from home institutions residing within an EPSCOR jurisdiction, host institutions do not have to be located within an EPSCOR jurisdiction. Okay, this is a fellowship. How might I discuss my research and my hypotheses, for example, or research questions? Okay, so here's some tips. You wanna keep in mind that the presentation of interdependent hypotheses or objectives may raise a red flag among reviewers during merit review. Let's say you intend to propose the development of an instrument or technique or access a facility and that's the main core of your fellowship activities. Keep in mind that it's still important to include the overarching motivation for using these resources as it relates to your overall research agenda. So in describing your research and your research agenda, still needs to be present in your proposal. Can I travel to more than one host site? Well, the solicitation states that only a single host site may be identified in the proposal and that PIs are not allowed to split their fellowship between two or more host sites. This pertains primarily to the host site, the primary host site. PIs are welcome to include visits to sites that are within a reasonable commuting distance from the primary host site using standard transportation. PIs may also request budgetary support to travel to conferences, for example. I specify an NSF directorate and division in the project summary. Will my proposal go to that particular part of NSF as an agency? Okay, so at the bottom of the project summary page, we ask that you indicate the NSF directorate, division or program that most closely aligns with the proposal's research focus. This notation is used only for organizational purposes and is not involved in the merit review of proposals. So the merit review will take place within the EPSCOR program. Plan to go to a federal laboratory facility that requires an additional proposal before I can use it. How do I address this in my proposal? All right, the solicitation is really good. It states that PIs proposing to visit a government laboratory or similar site with a policy that requires the submission of a proposal for the use of instrumentation are expected to describe a plan for securing access to this equipment within the proposal's project description, okay? I submitted a proposal to this year's competition. Can I serve as a reviewer? Unfortunately, PIs are not able to serve as reviewers for an active competition if they've submitted a proposal to the same competition cycle. So if you get a request on accident, just say no. I'm already in the competition. I'm a past recipient of an EPSCOR research fellowship. Can I apply for another one? As it states in the solicitation, if you're a past recipient, you cannot apply for another one. If I move to a new institution, uh-oh, that is not within an EPSCOR jurisdiction, can I keep my fellowship award? Let's see. If you leave the home institution and you move to a non-EPSCOR jurisdiction after submitting a proposal or after receiving an award, you will not be permitted to receive or retain your award. So if you move to an EPSCOR jurisdiction, then you can transfer your award. But because we're a congressionally mandated program, we cannot allow EPSCOR funds to be spent in non-EPSCOR eligible jurisdictions, okay? Can I go to a NASA research center for the at NSF subtract? Proposals to both subtracts may include collaborations at NASA research centers. If you'd like assistance in identifying a collaborator at NASA, regardless of which subtract you're applying for, please contact the NASA EPSCOR agency contact listed in the solicitation. Okay, okay. So here is our contact information. This is this year's track four team or EPSCOR research fellows team at NSF and at NASA. And as you can see, Frank McDonald is your NASA EPSCOR agency contact that you'll primarily reach out to. I also wanna put in a shameless plug for office hours that we'll be hosting starting in February, every third Thursday, starting February 8th, we will be hosting office hours for you to ask questions. You're welcome to submit your questions in advance to my email or if you'd like reasonable accommodations beyond real-time captioning, you're welcome to do that as well. And with next steps for PIs interested in submitting a proposal to this opportunity. First, consult with your sponsored research office regarding internal competitions as there's a limited submission of proposals that can be submitted from your institution. Next, identify collaborator ASAP at a host site or at a NASA center. And for EPSCOR research fellows at NASA, please review the focus areas to find alignment with available opportunities and also contact the NASA EPSCOR agency coordinator. Of course, write the proposal narrative early and obtain letters of support early. Do both early so that people can read them. And of course, contact us at NSF and at NASA regarding your questions. Please, no question is wrong, no question is bad. We take them all, we've heard everything. So please, please, please send us questions. And finally, please submit your proposal through research.gov while before the deadline. And this deadline has been updated now to April 22nd. If you're interested in reviewing for this opportunity and you're not a PI submitting a proposal to the competition, please send your CV to an NSF point of contact like myself and you will be asked to complete a reviewer survey in advance of the deadline so we can know how to match you to a proposal. Okay, that's it for me. Thank you so much for listening. And let's have our Q&A. Dr. Chichi, thank you so much. I had some questions to ask you, but you asked.