NIST Programs for Undergraduates, Teachers, Precision Measurements Announced
By Michael Baum
Posted: Dec 18, 2013
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is advertising available grants in a pair of programs aimed at undergraduate students and middle school teachers, as well as the latest round of the agency's long-running Precision Measurement Grants program. All three were recently announced at the federal funding web site Grants.gov.
The NIST Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program provides an opportunity for undergraduate students to spend a summer working with the internationally recognized NIST research staff on projects in a wide variety of disciplines at either the main NIST laboratories in Gaithersburg, Md., or its laboratories in Boulder, Colo. Applications are made on behalf of the students by their academic institutions. Applications must be received by Feb. 14, 2014. Full details of the program, rules and the application process are available at Grants.gov under funding opportunity2014-NIST-SURF-01. See www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=248933.
The NIST Summer Institute for Middle School Science Teachers program is a two-week workshop at NIST's Gaithersburg, Md., campus combining lectures, tours and hands-on activities that educators can recreate in their own classrooms. The program aims to increase teachers' understanding of the subjects they teach, provide materials and resources to implement what they have learned at NIST in the classroom, enhance their enthusiasm for science, increase teachers' understanding of how scientific research is carried out and provide them with the opportunity to develop an ongoing network of scientists and engineers at NIST who will be available for consultation even after the NIST Summer Institute program has ended.
Public school districts or accredited private educational institutes in the United States and/or its territories that offer general science classes at grade levels 6-8 are eligible to nominate teachers to participate. Individual teachers do not apply directly, but through their schools or school districts. Applications must be received by March. 12, 2014. Full details of the program, rules and the application process are available at Grants.gov under funding opportunity 2014-NIST-SUMMER-INSTITUTE-0. See www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=249056.
Since 1970, NIST has sponsored its Precision Measurement Grants Program (PMGP). Awarded primarily to researchers at universities and colleges, the grants enable them to conduct significant research in the field of fundamental measurement or the determination of more precise values for fundamental constants of nature. NIST sponsors these research projects primarily to encourage basic, measurement-related research in universities and colleges and other research laboratories. The PMGP also is intended to make it possible for researchers to pursue new ideas in measurement science for which other sources of support may be difficult to find.
NIST anticipates funding two projects at most, depending on the availability of funding, for up to three years at $50,000 per year. Eligible proposers are accredited institutions of higher education; hospitals; nonprofit organizations; commercial organizations; state, local and Indian tribal governments; foreign governments; organizations under the jurisdiction of foreign governments; international organizations; and federal agencies with appropriate legal authority. Applications must be received by May 6, 2014. Full details of the program, rules and the application process are available at Grants.gov under funding opportunity 2014-NIST-PMGP-01. See www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=248854.
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