Funding- HHMI Professors – New Awards for Science Education; July 1, 2016

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has announced a new competition that provides five-year nonrenewable grants totaling $1 million each to 15 HHMI Professors in support of their undergraduate science education activities. In addition to the grants to individual professors, this initiative includes an option for teams of two eligible scientists from the same institution to apply for collaborative awards, with each team award totaling $1.5 million over five years. The University of Kentucky is one of 115 research institutions invited to submit applications.

Individual eligibility requirements:

· Applicants must be full time tenured faculty members of a baccalaureate degree-granting natural science department (biological/life sciences, chemistry/biochemistry, physics, earth/geosciences, astronomy. Applicants from a non-natural science department (i.e., computer science, mathematics, and engineering) will be considered if their research has direct impact on a natural science field.

· Be currently appointment full time and will have held that appointment in their current home department for a least three consecutive years.

· Have an assigned role in the development or implementation of the undergraduate curriculum in their home department as part of their faculty appointment responsibilities (teaching undergraduate courses, chair of the department curriculum committee, etc.).

· Be an accomplished research scientist as evidenced by being principal investigator of one or more active, national, peer-reviewed research awards of at least three years’ duration, such as an NIH R01 grant, an NSF research grant, or an American Cancer Society research grant. Mentored awards, career development grants, and training grants do not qualify.

Application procedure:

Prospective applicants must submit an Intent to Apply online at www.hhmi.org/hhmiprofs2017 by the deadline of July 1, 2016. Eligible applicants will be invited to submit an application before October 6, 2016 on the competition website. The longer application will require:

· curriculum vitae and current and pending research support;

· statement of applicant’s significant scientific achievements;

· statement of applicant’s significant achievements in undergraduate science education;

· narrative detailing how the proposed activities will advance applicant’s research and teaching goals, incorporate evidence-based practice, and impact science education within the applicant’s department, home university, and broader scientific community. Two applicants may link their applications in order to collaborate on a single project;

· statement of how the appointment as HHMI professor will enhance the applicant’s identity as a scientist-educator and empower her/him to be an advocate for effective science education;

· up to two scientific publications;

· proposed budget.

More information about this Program including the competition announcement booklet is posted on the HHMI website: http://www.hhmi.org/programs/hhmi-professors.