The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families Grant

OPRE Grant Announcements

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has recently published a discretionary research funding announcement titled "Early Care and Education Research Scholars: Child Care Research Scholars," which is summarized below.   If you have questions regarding this grant announcement, please email the OPRE grant review team at ChildCareScholars@icfi.com<mailto:ChildCareScholars@icfi.com> or call 1-877-350-5913.

Child Care Research Scholars Grant

The full announcement for "Early Care and Education Research Scholars: Child Care Research Scholars" is available online at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/foa/view/HHS-2013-ACF-OPRE-YE-0577. These grants are meant to build capacity in the research field to focus research on questions that have direct implications for child care policy decision-making and program administration and to foster mentoring relationships between faculty members and high quality doctoral students.
Who is eligible to apply? Funds for Child Care Research Scholars are available to support dissertation research on child care policy issues by advanced graduate students from relevant disciplines.
Eligible applicants include doctoral level graduate students enrolled in accredited public, State-controlled, and private institutions of higher education. The institution must be fully accredited by one of the regional accrediting commissions recognized by the Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. Additionally, eligible applicants must have a faculty mentor, who has a Ph.D. or equivalent in the respective field, and conducts research as a primary professional responsibility in their university/institution.

What is the funding award limit and project period?  Applicants may apply for project periods up to 24 months with two 12-month budget periods. Up to $25,000 may be awarded for each budget period. For information about previous Child Care Research Scholars, see http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/cc/ccr_scholars/index.html.
What types of research are supported? Proposed projects must represent high-quality research (including research using different methodologies, designs, or secondary data analysis) and must address applied research questions that will inform and improve child care policies and practice. Topics of current interest for this announcement include, but are not limited to (please see announcement for further details):


  *   Understanding the child care needs of diverse low-income families and/or improving child care programs and policies for various subpopulations;
  *   The effects of alternative State/Territory/Tribal- and local-level child care subsidy policies and practices on children and families served (e.g., access to subsidies, the accessibility and quality of care, parental employment and self-sufficiency, children's school readiness);
  *   Issues related to Tribal child care, including maintaining culture, language, and traditions through intergenerational approaches to child care and intergenerational approaches that utilize older adult volunteers;
  *   Features of child care that are most critical to support children's development and family well-being;
  *   Factors that play a role in parents' decisions about work, child care, and subsidy access;
  *   Identification and examination of family-level processes that might be influenced by child care or child care subsidy use or might moderate the relationships between care and children's development;
  *   Identification and examination of context-level factors that influence availability of and access to quality child care in rural United States, and solutions that might moderate the relationship between context and children's development in rural U.S.;
  *   Issues related to the participation of various minority groups in different types of early care and education programs and how these types of care/programs meet the needs of children and their families in these groups;
  *   Cost-effective investments (e.g. professional development interventions, child care environment improvement strategies, service coordination models) to improve child care quality in all settings;
  *   Impact of changes in the early child care sector (e.g., unionization of workforce, expansion of universal preK) on the delivery and quality of child care and access to high-quality care by low-income, at-risk families;
  *   Issues and outcomes related to early childhood workforce development, including in-depth examination of promising training programs or other interventions to support caregivers in all settings, examination of promising new technologies to deliver caregiver education and training, efforts to improve data about caregivers, local and state-level strategies for the professional development of caregivers, evaluation of different early childhood credentialing and educational models and their associations with care, and comparison of benefits, compensation, and other efforts to reduce turnover;
  *   Factors promoting or hindering collaboration among child care providers and other early childhood systems;
  *   Issues related to the participation of home-based providers in professional development initiatives and other systemic approaches to improve quality of care received by low-income children (e.g., Quality Rating Improvement System (QRIS));
  *   Development/validation of measures/instruments to assess the characteristics of care or needs of caregivers, especially home-based providers; and
  *   Issues related to child care licensing, including improvement in State licensing standards and policies promoting the licensing of diverse programs.

When is the application deadline?  Letters of intent are due April 21, 2013 and applications are due May 21, 2013.
If you have questions regarding this grant announcement, please email the OPRE grant review team at ChildCareScholars@icfi.com<mailto:ChildCareScholars@icfi.com> or call1-877-350-5913.

Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Program Short Term Projects

Application Deadline: June 13, 2013

CFDA Number: 84.021A

Funding Opportunity Number: ED-GRANTS-041713-003

The U.S. Department of Education and the International and Foreign Language Education (IFLE) office is pleased to announce a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Program opportunity.

Under the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad (GPA) Program, the funds will support overseas projects in training, research, and curriculum development in modern foreign languages and area studies for teachers, students, and faculty engaged in a common endeavor. Projects may include short-term seminars, curriculum development, or group research/study.  

Duration: Applicants may apply for a maximum grant performance period up to eighteen months in duration for short-term projects; proposed start and end dates should be September 1, 2013-March 31, 2015.  Educator groups may travel abroad anytime during this eighteen month period. The minimum time abroad is four weeks total.  

Eligible Applicants:  (1) IHEs, (2) State departments of education, (3) Private nonprofit educational organizations, and (4) Consortia of these entities.

Eligible Participants: An individual is eligible to participate in a Fulbright-Hays GPA Short Term Project if she/he is: (1) A citizen, national, or permanent resident of the United States; and Currently employed full-time in a United States school system, institution of higher education, local education agency or state education agency (not applicable to students); (2) And at least one of the following: a) A teacher in an elementary or secondary school (please see note below);  b) A faculty member who teaches modern foreign languages or area studies;  c) An experienced education administrator responsible for planning, conducting, or supervising programs in modern foreign languages or area studies at the elementary, secondary, or postsecondary levels;  d) A graduate student or junior or senior in an institution of higher education, who is a prospective teacher in the areas of social sciences, humanities and foreign languages. The student should meet the provisions set by his or her local and state education agencies.

Project Types: Short-Term Seminars, Curriculum Development, and Group Research or Study

Financial Provisions: The institutional award will pay for group travel and host country expenses, including: maintenance stipends based on fifty percent of the amount established by the U.S. Department of State; round-trip international travel; a local travel allowance for necessary project-related travel within the host country; purchase of project-related artifacts, books, and other teaching materials in the country of study; rent for instructional facilities in the country of study; clerical and professional services performed by resident instructional personnel in the country of study; and other expenses in the country of study deemed necessary for the project's success and approved in advance by the U.S. Department of Education.

Please note that the grant does not provide funds for project-related expenses within the United States. The GPA program will not provide funds for: 1) U.S.-based salaries and fringe benefits; and  2) U.S.-based activities such as pre-departure orientations and post-travel follow-up, although these activities are required.  

The application package will be available starting April 18, 2013 at http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do;jsessionid=dYkcRxyYrlCfvkKLDQjkZy0nh7nZQ6y2pPkpGGjGyQZvpzgmjBdc!-189593869   For more information, please go to http://www2.ed.gov/programs/iegpsgpa/applicant.html

John L. Simpson Memorial Research Fellowship in International and Comparative Studies

This research fellowship is a memorial to John L. Simpson to support research in comparative studies that analyze similarities and differences among societies and states, with respect to social, cultural, political, and economic structures and policies, including patterns of these relationships in global and transnational systems. During his long, illustrious career, Mr. Simpson was awarded the two highest honors bestowed by the University: the Gold Medal for Outstanding Scholar in 1913 and, at Charter Day in 1960, a Doctor of Laws degree for his many years of distinguished public service. This included prominent participation in American relief efforts in Europe during and after World War I, service with a State Department mission to the Allied Control commission in Italy during the later stages of World War II, and early membership in the Belgian-American Educational Foundation, the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, and the Foreign Policy Association. Mr. Simpson served as President of the World Affairs Council of Northern California and was decorated by the French Legion of Honor and the Belgian Order of the Crown. Within the broad category of international/comparative studies, the Institute of International Studies has identified five topics that take priority.

Eligibility:  All UC Berkeley graduate students in good standing who will formally advance to candidacy (will have satisfied all requirements of the Ph.D except the dissertation) by the Fall of the fellowship term, may apply.  Funds will not be available until the student has advanced to candidacy.  Students must be currently registered with the Graduate Division or on approved travel status.  Students are eligible for support regardless of previous fellowships from other sources.  The award amount is at the discretion of the committee.  Request for tuition and fee costs as separate items will not be considered.  The John L. Simpson Memorial Fellowship may be used in conjunction with other grants, but during the term of the award, total income from all sources, excluding awards specifically earmarked for travel and tuition, cannot exceed $31,000.  Successful candidates will be consulted regarding other funding sources before the award is granted.  Under most circumstances, dissertation fellows are expected to be residents at Berkeley for the tenure of the award, except those who must conduct research away from the Bay Area.  

Application Details: 

The application for first-time applicants to the John L. Simpson Memorial Research Fellowship can be found here.

Please ask your recommender to e-mail the recommendation letter directly to iis.grants@berkeley.edu (subject line: “Recommendation Letter for Last Name, First Name; Bendix/Sharlin/Simpson”).  You and your recommender must also fill-out and SIGN the Faculty Waiver Form, found here and scan the form to iis.grants@berkeley.edu.  

 

 

Contact:  Please direct further inquiries to iis.grants@berkeley.edu.      

 

 

Data Science for Social Good Summer Fellowship

We’re training future data scientists to work on the world’s most challenging social problems.
Fellows will work in small teams with mentors from the Obama campaign analytics team and seasoned data scientists from academia and business on high-impact projects in education, healthcare, energy, transportation, and more.

We're looking for PhD, masters, and advanced undergraduate students in the computer science, statistics, and the computational and quantitative sciences. If you're an amazing software engineer with a serious interest in data science, we want to hear from you too.
You’ll need statistics, programming, and data skills - but you don’t need to be an expert in every area.
Most of all, we want people who are passionate about using data for social impact.

Application Deadline: April 1, 2013
Acceptance Notification: April 10-15, 2013
Fellowship Program: Early June - Late August 2013
You'll need a resume, 1 to 2 letters of recommendation, and statement of interest highlighting experience with data science projects and passion for social impact.

Greater Good Dissertation Research Awards

To galvanize young researchers in the study of gratitude, the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley will grant up to seven awards for dissertation-level research projects with the greatest potential to advance the science and practice of gratitude. Eight excellent researchers received $10,000 awards in the first cycle of this program.

Preference will be given to innovative projects that have clear scientific or translational impact. Awardees will receive up to $10,000 for one year to support the conduct of their dissertation research. No more than 15 percent of the total costs ($1,500) may be allocated to Facilities & Administrative (F&A)/Indirect Costs.
Please read on for details. If you have any questions about the application process or the awards themselves, please consult our Dissertation Research Awards FAQ; if you don’t see your question there, please email it to gratitude@berkeley.edu.

This Dissertation Research Award program is part of a larger project, Expanding the Science and Practice of Gratitude, funded by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.
Timeline

• Application Window: February 1 – April 5, 2013
• Winners Announced: April 29, 2013
• Funding Starts: June 1, 2013

Job offer: Post-doctoral research fellowship (3 yrs) in the politics of development/state-building

Post-doctoral Research Fellowship (3 yrs) in the Politics of Development/State-building

http://www.murdoch.edu.au/About-us/Careers-at-Murdoch/

Asia Research Centre
 

·         Fixed term contract – 3 years.

·         $68,052 to $92,319 including employer superannuation contributions and an opportunity to salary package.

Dr Caroline Hughes and Dr Shahar Hameiri at the Asia Research Centre are offering a three year Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in the area of politics of development and/or state-building to assist in the research and delivery of an Australian Government funded research project that is investigating the politics of public administration reform in the context of state-building in the Asia-Pacific.

The work will involve collaborating with Dr Hughes and Dr Hameiri in the conduct of the project described below. The successful candidate will also have the opportunity to develop and pursue their own research project.

Project: The Politics of Public Administration Reform: Capacity Development and Ideological Contestation in the Context of International State-building.

Summary: Why do expensive international aid programs often fail to achieve public administration reform in fragile states? Prevailing explanations focus on civil servants’ lack of technical skills, or resistance from vested local interests benefiting from poor governance. In contract, this study focuses on the role of public administrations in managing societal conflict. Ideologies of bureaucratic organisation and functioning emerge to justify modes of governance that legitimise particular distributions of power and resources. Understanding the political economy of state power and its implications for ideologies of public authority can inform donor efforts to promote reform, by identifying mutually beneficial tactical alliances with local actors.

The successful applicant will have a PhD in Political Science or a closely cognate field, a high level of written and oral communication skills, and demonstrated interpersonal skills. Applicants should have a demonstrated capacity to undertake independent research and a record of refereed research publications, relative to opportunity.

It is essential that applicants can demonstrate skills in qualitative research techniques, including elite interviewing and experience of fieldwork in developing countries, preferably in Asia or the Pacific. Of particular interest will be applicants who can demonstrate a commitment to publishing their research in international journals.

For further information about this position please contact Dr Shahar Hameiri by phone on +61 (0) 8 9360 6228 or by email at s.hameiri@murdoch.edu.au. Application procedures and a position description with detailed selection criteria is available from the web links shown below.

Full project description and information about research at the Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University, are available in this Dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/17cnix3gyyyyj01/kbQiamoXbS.

All applicants are required to address the selection criteria within their application. Please send applications to recruitment@murdoch.edu.au.
 

Closing date:  Sunday 7th April 2013

Abigail Reynolds Hodgen Publication Funds

This endowment was established in 1937 to assist with the publication of manuscripts by women graduate students or women faculty (members of the Academic Senate) in the Social Sciences.

Awards are up to a maximum of $5,000 . Proposals are restricted to those that require funding for publication costs only.

Proposals need not be more than one or two pages. They should include the manuscript title, a brief description of the project, and a budget breaking out the different items on which funds are to be spent.

Examples of previously approved proposals:

• Permission/copyright charges for illustrations
• Hiring a UC Berkeley GSR to assist with editing and indexing a book manuscript
• Hiring a cartographer to prepare maps for an article to be submitted to a journal
• Hiring a copyeditor
• Reprint and printing costs
• Printing supplies, photocopying, mail costs
• Attendance at a conference to "workshop" a book chapter or paper that has been accepted for publication

Examples of denied proposals:

• Computer purchases
• Travel to perform research
• Stipends to applicant
• Attendance at a conference to present a paper that has not yet been accepted for publication

It is strongly recommended that budgets be reviewed by Department managers. Budgets involving UC Berkeley payroll (e.g., a GSR) must estimate benefits costs (which include fee remission costs as appropriate).

Requests should be addressed to Dean Carla Hesse and submitted via email by the Department Chair with his/her brief endorsement to Associate Dean Cathryn Carson (clcarson@berkeley.edu). The due date is April 5, 2013. Awards should be expended by June 30, 2014. If an extension is needed on the timeframe for expenditure, Budget Officer Helen Workman (hworkman@berkeley.edu) will consider it on a case-by-case basis.