Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) Program | 20 595

Opportunity Information: Apply for 20 595

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) Program is a discretionary grant opportunity that funds new and potentially transformative approaches to STEM graduate education. Its core purpose is to push beyond incremental improvements and instead pilot, test, and validate bold training models for graduate students in research-based master's and doctoral programs. NSF is looking for projects that help graduate students build the skills, knowledge, and professional competencies needed to succeed across a wide range of STEM career pathways, not only traditional academic roles. A central expectation is that funded efforts will produce usable evidence and practical insight so that successful approaches can be adapted, implemented elsewhere, and adopted more broadly across institutions and disciplines.

IGE emphasizes experimentation and learning: proposals are expected to try novel education models or activities and evaluate them in ways that meaningfully add to the knowledge base on what works in graduate education. In addition to improving workforce preparation, the program explicitly addresses broad participation and institutional capacity building, meaning it supports ideas that strengthen graduate training systems while also widening access and success for diverse groups in STEM. Collaboration is strongly encouraged, especially partnerships that connect universities with external stakeholders such as private sector employers, non-governmental organizations, government agencies, national laboratories, field stations, teaching and learning centers, informal science centers, and other academic partners. These collaborations are intended to ensure that training innovations are aligned with real workforce needs and can be sustained or scaled beyond a single department or campus.

A notable special emphasis in this solicitation is NSF's interest in establishing an IGE Innovation Acceleration Hub through a single cooperative agreement. The Hub is envisioned as a coordination and engagement platform that helps IGE awardees communicate with each other about project activities and results, while also creating a structured way for external stakeholders to engage with the program's outcomes. In practical terms, the Hub would function as a connective tissue across the IGE portfolio, helping share lessons learned, highlight effective practices, and increase visibility and usability of findings for institutions and partners outside the immediate set of awardees. Only Hub proposals submitted by the November 2020 deadline were eligible to be considered for funding under that special emphasis.

From the opportunity details provided, NSF anticipated making around 10 awards for IGE project proposals, with an award ceiling of $500,000 per award. The funding instrument type is a grant, and the activity category is science and technology and other research and development. Eligibility is described as unrestricted, meaning it is broadly open to many kinds of applicant organizations, subject to any additional eligibility clarifications in the full solicitation text. The opportunity was published under Funding Opportunity Number 20-595, with an original closing date of November 4, 2020, and it is associated with multiple CFDA numbers within NSF's portfolio (47.041, 47.049, 47.050, 47.070, 47.074, 47.075, 47.076, 47.079, 47.083).

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.041, 47.049, 47.050, 47.070, 47.074, 47.075, 47.076, 47.079, 47.083.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 09, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Nov 04, 2020 IGE Project Proposals. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for 20 595

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