13-higher education-final to web changes.pdf

Higher Education Challenge (HEC) Grants Program

FY 2013 Request for Applications

Application Deadline: February 8, 2013

HEC Program:

Telephone: 202-720-1973

Email: HEC@nifa.usda.gov

Internet:

www.nifa.usda.gov/fo/educationchallengehigheredhep.html

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number (CFDA)

10.217 Higher Education Challenge Grants

NIFA Funding Opportunity Number

USDA-NIFA-CGP-003954

U.S. Department of Agriculture

National Institute of Food and Agriculture mailto:HEC@nifa.usda.gov http://www.nifa.usda.gov/fo/educationchallengehigheredhep.html

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE;

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

HIGHER EDUCATION CHALLENGE GRANTS PROGRAM (HEC)

INITIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

CATALOG OF FEDERAL DOMESTIC ASSISTANCE: This program is listed in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance under 10.217, Higher Education Challenge Grants.

DATES: Applications must be received by close of business (COB) on February 8, 2013 (5:00 p.m. Eastern Time). Applications received after this deadline will normally not be considered for funding. Comments regarding this request for applications (RFA) are requested within six months from the issuance of this notice. Comments received after that date will be considered to the extent practicable.

STAKEHOLDER INPUT: The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is requesting comments regarding this RFA from any interested party. These comments will be considered in the development of the next RFA for the program, if applicable, and will be used to meet the requirements of section 103(c)(2) of the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 (7 U.S.C. 7613(c)(2)). This section requires the Secretary to solicit and consider input on a current RFA from persons who conduct or use agricultural research, education and extension for use in formulating future RFAs for competitive programs. Written stakeholder comments on this RFA should be submitted in accordance with the deadline set forth in the DATES portion of this Notice.

Written stakeholder comments on this proposed consolidation of programs should be submitted by mail to: Policy and Oversight Division; Office of Grants and Financial Management; National Institute of Food and Agriculture; USDA; STOP 2299; 1400 Independence Avenue, SW;

Washington, DC 20250-2299; or via e-mail to: Policy@nifa.usda.gov. (This e-mail address is intended only for receiving comments regarding this RFA and not requesting information or forms.) In your comments, please state that you are responding to the Higher Education Challenge Grants Program RFA.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: NIFA requests applications for the Higher Education Challenge Grants Program (HEC) for fiscal year (FY) 2013 to stimulate and enable colleges and universities to provide the quality of education necessary to produce baccalaureate or higher degree level graduates capable of strengthening the Nation’s food and agricultural scientific and professional workforce. NIFA anticipates that the amount available for support of this program in FY 2013 will be approximately $4.77 million. This RFA is being released prior to the passage of an Appropriations Act for FY 2013. Enactment of additional Continuing Resolutions or an Appropriations Act may affect the availability or level of funding for this program.

This notice identifies the objectives for HEC projects, the eligibility criteria for projects and applicants, and the application forms and associated instructions needed to apply for a HEC mailto:RFP-OEP@nifa.usda.gov grant. NIFA additionally requests stakeholder input from any interested party for use in the development of the next RFA for this program.

Table of Contents

PART I—FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION

A. Legislative Authority and Background B. Purpose and Priorities C. Program Area Description

PART II—AWARD INFORMATION

A. Available Funding B. Types of Applications C. Project Types D. Project Duration E. Number and Size of Grant Awards F. Application Submission & Award Limitations G. Funding Limitations per Institution

PART III—ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION

A. Eligible Applicants B. Cost Sharing or Matching

PART IV—APPLICATION AND SUBMISSION INFORMATION

A. Electronic Application Package B. Content and Form of Application Submission C. Submission Dates and Times D. Funding Restrictions E. Other Submission Requirements

PART V—APPLICATION REVIEW REQUIREMENTS

A. General B. Evaluation Criteria C. Conflicts of Interest and Confidentiality D. Organizational Management Information

PART VI—AWARD ADMINISTRATION

A. General B. Award Notice C. Administrative and National Policy Requirements D. Expected Program Outputs and Reporting Requirements

PART VII—AGENCY CONTACT

PART VIII—OTHER INFORMATION

A. Access To Review Information B. Use of Funds; Changes C. Confidential Aspects of Applications and Awards D. Regulatory Information E. Definitions

PART I—FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION

A. Legislative Authority and Background

Section 1405 of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (NARETPA), as amended, (7 U.S.C. 3121) designates the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as the lead Federal agency for agriculture research, extension and teaching in the food and agricultural sciences. Authority for this program is contained in section 1417(b)(1) of NARETPA (7 U.S.C. 3152(b)(1)). Section 1417 of NARETPA authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture, who has delegated the authority to the Director of NIFA, to make competitive grants to strengthen institutional capacities to respond to identified State, regional, national or international educational needs to formulate and administer programs to enhance college and university teaching in agriculture, natural resources, forestry, veterinary medicine, human and family and consumer sciences, disciplines closely allied to the food and agricultural system, and rural economic, community and business development.

HEC supports USDA’s Research, Education and Economics (REE) 2012 Strategic Goal #6:

Education and Science Literacy to recruit, cultivate, and develop the next generation of scientists and leaders, and to produce a highly-skilled workforce for food, agriculture, natural resources, forestry, and environmental systems.

Background

In July 2008, the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and Department of Energy asked the National Research Council’s Board on Life Sciences to convene a committee to”… examine the current state of biological research in the United States and recommend how best to capitalize on recent technological and scientific advances that have allowed biologists to integrate biological research findings, collect and interpret vastly increased amounts of data, and predict the behavior of complex biological systems.” The committee produced a report entitled “New Biology for the 21st Century: Ensuring the United States Leads the Coming Revolution,” and a set of recommendations that recognize the most effective leveraging of investments would come from a coordinated, interagency effort to encourage the emergence of a New Biology to address broad and challenging societal problems.

That committee outlined four broad societal challenges in food, environment, energy, and health that could be addressed by the New Biology. The four challenges are: (1) Generate food plants to adapt and grow sustainably in changing environments; (2) Understand and sustain ecosystem function and biodiversity in the face of rapid change; (3) Expand sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels; and (4)Understand individual health.

USDA – NIFA Response: Building upon the four “New Biology for the 21st Century” challenges, above, USDA-NIFA has refocused its mission to direct agricultural sciences research, education, and extension programs on addressing the following five Priority Areas:

1. Food Security and Hunger

2. Climate Change

3. Sustainable Energy

4. Childhood Obesity

5. Food Safety

The Higher Education Challenge (HEC) Grants Program is a NIFA-administered competitive grants program focused on improving formal, postsecondary-level agricultural sciences education. Guided by critical societal issues laid out in the “New Biology for the 21st Century” report, as well as the five, compelling NIFA Priority Areas, HEC-funded projects provide funding to eligible applicants to help ensure a competent, qualified and diverse workforce to serve the food and agricultural sciences system. At the same time, HEC-funded projects improve the economic health and viability of rural communities through the development of degree programs emphasizing new and emerging employment opportunities. Finally, HEC projects focus on the national challenge to increase the number and diversity (i.e., having an agricultural sciences workforce representative of the Nation’s population) of students entering other food and agriculture-related science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

Therefore, applications submitted to this grants program must state how the funded project will address the two HEC Program Goals:

1. To increase the number and diversity of students who will pursue and complete a postsecondary degree in the food and agricultural sciences, and for FY 2013, encourage study in areas that contribute to any of the five NIFA Priority Areas listed above; and

2. To enhance the quality of postsecondary instruction in order to help meet current and future national food and agricultural sciences workplace needs.

B. Purpose and Priorities

Reminders for the FY 2013 RFA:

1. Continued requirement for funded projects to address one of the five, NIFA Priority

Areas listed in Part I, A.

2. Continue to encourage the submission of a Conference/Planning Proposal (Part II, C.1.), to fund strategic planning for Large-scale (state or region) Comprehensive Initiatives

(LCI).

3. Continue to encourage the submission of a Large-scale (state or region) Comprehensive Initiatives (Part II, C.4.).

4. Focus: All HEC-funded projects shall focus on improving the quality of academic instruction within the postsecondary system in order to recruit and retain a greater number of qualified and diverse graduates who are: (a) capable of entering the agricultural sciences workforce with occupational competencies expected by employers, and (b) encouraged to pursue a baccalaureate or advanced degree in disciplines supporting the five NIFA Priority Areas. ‘Academic instruction’, as used in the previous sentence, includes improving curricula, faculty competencies, and interactions with other academic institutions or employers to increase student recruitment and retention levels in order to meet the demands of a changing U.S. agricultural sciences workforce.

Educational Need Areas explained in Part I, C.2., provide further, specific project focus.

5. Scale: All HEC-funded projects shall seek to address a greater number of prospective students or qualified faculty, and demonstrate the potential for adoption by other academic institutions to address similar challenges. Projects shall also maximize available educational resources, encourage partnerships, and reduce duplication of efforts among participating academic institutions, especially in areas of faculty expertise, course offerings, and transfer or articulation agreements between institutions, all to enhance students’ interests and abilities to pursue advanced degrees. Project Types explained in Part II, C., provide further, specific encouragement to scale up a funded project to create greater impact.

6. Impact: All HEC-funded projects shall seek to create measurable impacts or outcomes.

Impacts are defined as anticipated benefits to the target project audience. Impacts shall be measurable. Measuring impacts begins with a comprehensive Project Evaluation Plan that includes developing assessment instruments. The Project Evaluation Plan explained in Part I, C.3., provides further, specific guidance on the importance of developing a compelling impact.

HEC-funded projects encourage academic institutions, organizations, and employers to work collectively to identify and address a state or regional challenge facing the food and agricultural sciences education community. An application submitted to the HEC grants program shall propose comprehensive and coordinated activities to address that challenge or opportunity. At the same time, HEC-funded project activities shall also demonstrate a state or regional impact on increasing the number, quality, and diversity of postsecondary students, and shall improve student learning and retention. Accordingly, projects are encouraged that are submitted by (or are in partnership with) eligible, minority-serving institutions that increase the diversity of graduates entering the workforce.

HEC-funded activities could include, but are not limited to, developing, evaluating, and disseminating:

• Educational materials for any postsecondary-level course, laboratory, or related curricula that encourage study in areas that contribute to any of the five NIFA Priority Areas;

• Instructional delivery methods to improve student retention of academic content, and/or

• Professional development approaches to improve the capacity of faculty and teaching assistants to provide effective and updated instruction.

HEC-funded project activities shall support the creation and adaptation of learning materials and teaching strategies to operationalize what we know about how students learn. Many of these concepts are identified in the National Research Council’s publication: How People Learn, available at: http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=9853. HEC-funded projects shall also focus on imparting both technical discipline knowledge as well as ‘soft’ skills such as communication, team work, and problem solving, as these are abilities expected by employers of graduates entering the food and agricultural sciences workforce. These concepts may be found in the publication: Comparative Analysis of Soft Skills: What is Important for New Graduates?, available at: http://www.aplu.org/document.doc?id=3414.

http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=9853 http://www.aplu.org/document.doc?id=3414

Projects shall also promote faculty expertise and encourage widespread implementation of educational innovation. This solicitation especially encourages projects with the potential to transform classroom practices at the institutional level, to address current understanding of how students learn most effectively, and in response, how faculty adopt instructional approaches.

The intent of a HEC-funded project is to make a significant impact on the challenge or opportunity being addressed, with the expectation that major portions of the impact will be sustained after NIFA funding ends. Projects are expected to encourage broad participation of students traditionally underrepresented in the agricultural sciences disciplines. All projects should be grounded by concepts documented in relevant background literature promoting innovations in education and student learning, and show an awareness of relevant prior experience and personnel adequacy in those areas.

Educational instrumentation and equipment requests are appropriate expenses in HEC-funded projects. However, such purchases must directly support the specific student learning outcome proposed by the grant application. Convincing documentation and justification for such expenses are required in the grant application.

By authorizing and funding this program, Congress expects HEC projects to: (a) produce measurable impacts aligned with HEC program goals and encourage study in areas that contribute to any of the NIFA Priority Areas, (b) promote innovative, educational practices within the food and agricultural sciences that improve how students learn, and (c) include a rigorous evaluation component to assess when project outcomes are met. Essentially, your application must convince a peer panel of a compelling educational challenge; clearly indicate how your methodology is both unique and with merit; offer significant promise of adoption by others; and the expectation that impacts will continue once grant funds end.

Note: Your project’s NIFA Priority Area, Program Category, Educational Need Area and primary academic Discipline focus must appear on the required Project Summary/Abstract.

The applicant must follow the format suggested in Part IV, B.3. Field 7, for this Project Summary/Abstract.

C. Program Area Description

1. Program Categories Your project must support for-credit, academic instruction with a primary focus in one of the following Program Categories:

(a) Baccalaureate degree-level projects in the food and agricultural sciences;

(b) Master’s degree-level projects in the food and agricultural sciences; or

(c) First professional degree-level projects in veterinary medicine (DVM).

Remember, a HEC-funded project must primarily focus on baccalaureate or higher level education. [Note: A funded HEC project may also, purposefully, include an ancillary, target impact on either secondary, or two-year postsecondary, students.

However, the primary project focus must clearly impact postsecondary students and instruction.] Projects with a primary target audience of K-14 students or teachers should, instead, be referred to the Secondary Education, Two-Year Postsecondary Education and Agriculture in the K-12 Classroom (SPECA) Grants Program offered through NIFA at:

http://www.nifa.usda.gov/fo/educationchallengesecondaryhep.cfm.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to refer to the recommendations for change from the National Research Council 2009 report entitled, Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World, for supporting your application and improving your project. This report recommends that academic institutions with undergraduate programs in the food and agricultural sciences implement the following nine steps to better meet the needs of students, employers, and the broader society. These recommendations are:

• Implement Strategic Planning

• Broaden Treatment of Agriculture in the Overall Curriculum

• Broaden the Student Experience

• Prepare Faculty to Teach Effectively

• Reward Exemplary Teaching

• Build Stronger Connections among Institutions

• Start Early—K-12 Outreach

• Build Strategic Partnerships

• Focus Reviews of Undergraduate Programs in Agriculture

For information on the full report, please refer to http://dels.nas.edu/ag_education/report.shtml and click on recommendations.

You are also encouraged to refer to a 2009 whitepaper on Human Capacity Development prepared by the Academic Programs Section of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities. Copies of the whitepaper entitled “Human Capacity Development: The Road to Global Competitiveness and Leadership in Food, Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (FANRRS),” can be found at:

http://www.aplu.org/NetCommunity/Document.Doc?id=1639.

2. Educational Need Areas

When preparing a HEC-funded project, focus shall be on activities contributing to a continuous pipeline of food and agriculture sciences STEM students educated for the agricultural sciences workforce. The rationale for choosing a particular Educational Need Area below must be explained in the context of how the project can contribute to the development of a cadre of students who will either pursue higher degrees or be prepared to enter the agricultural sciences workforce. Project activities must be planned with the students as the main beneficiaries, whether through developing or updating a new curriculum or course, establishing new instructional deliveries, pedagogical approaches, opportunities for experiential learning, faculty development, or partnerships with institutions or organizations. Thus, there is an expectation that one of the measurable http://www.nifa.usda.gov/fo/educationchallengesecondaryhep.cfm http://dels.nas.edu/ag_education/recommendations.shtml#plan http://dels.nas.edu/ag_education/recommendations.shtml#curr http://dels.nas.edu/ag_education/recommendations.shtml#stud http://dels.nas.edu/ag_education/recommendations.shtml#prep http://dels.nas.edu/ag_education/recommendations.shtml#teach http://dels.nas.edu/ag_education/recommendations.shtml#connect http://dels.nas.edu/ag_education/recommendations.shtml#early http://dels.nas.edu/ag_education/recommendations.shtml#partner http://dels.nas.edu/ag_education/recommendations.shtml#review http://dels.nas.edu/ag_education/report.shtml http://www.aplu.org/NetCommunity/Document.Doc?id=1639 outcomes of a proposed project is an increase in the number and diversity of students entering the food and agriculture academic pipeline or the workforce.

(a) HEC-funded projects must focus on one of the three Educational Need Areas listed below, and applications must demonstrate how this chosen Need Area will help achieve both HEC Program Goals from Part I. A. Note: Your application must include an Evaluation Plan (Part I. C. 3.) for each Educational Need Area you select. This Plan indicates how you will measure success in completing your objectives within your chosen Need Area. Therefore, choose only those Educational Need Areas for which you can commit to develop a rigorous Evaluation Plan.

Educational Need Areas for the HEC program are:

(1) Curriculum Development, Instructional Delivery Systems and Expanding

Student Career Opportunities: This Need Area promotes postsecondary-focused activities that improve the quality of academic instruction within the postsecondary system in order to recruit and retain a greater number of qualified and diverse graduates who are: (a) capable of entering the agricultural sciences workforce with occupational competencies expected by employers, and (b) encouraged to pursue a baccalaureate or advanced degree in disciplines supporting at least one of the five NIFA Priority Areas.

The purpose of this Need Area is to promote new and improved curricula, instructional materials, and other learning resources within postsecondary institutions to increase the quality of, and continuously renew, curricula in order to attract, recruit, and retain students in the food and agricultural sciences fields. The overall objective is to stimulate the development and use of exemplary education models and materials incorporating the most recent advances in subject matter, research on teaching and learning theory. Projects may emphasize, but are not limited to: the development of courses of study, degree programs, and instructional materials;

incorporating alternative instructional methodologies that respond to differences in student learning styles; inter-institutional collaborations that deliver instruction in ways that maximize program quality and reduce unnecessary duplication; the use of new approaches to the study of traditional subjects; the introduction of new subjects, or new applications of knowledge pertaining to agriscience and agribusiness content supporting at least one of the five NIFA Priority Areas.

Examples of eligible projects in this Need Area may include, but are not limited to, the following strategies:

• Designing course content around overarching and unifying concepts, skills and competencies -including innovative ways to integrate scientific research experiences- within the postsecondary curricula;

• Creating model curricula, laboratory, or student research experiences, especially activities that expand students’ career interests in the food and agricultural sciences through mentoring or professional shadowing activities, internships or practicums including international learning experiences, visiting lecturers, or other similar experiential learning activities such as hands-on, remote, and virtual laboratories;

• Fostering student experiential learning opportunities where students are placed in team-oriented, problem-solving, decision-making situations in the context of real-world situations. Experiential learning in laboratory research or field-based internships is encouraged, but any activity shall expose students to experiences directly supporting topics within the five NIFA Priority Areas. Such experiences must: (1) demonstrate how the experience will help meet students’ career goals or produce ‘society-ready’ graduates, and (2) contain an evaluation process— involving the faculty and/or employer or mentor—to assure that students meet project objectives;

• Forming partnerships involving a broad range of diverse institutions to better understand how students learn, how to sustain their interests, and how to acquire those skills and occupational competencies expected by employers;

• Establishing and promoting instructional methodologies to improve students’ retention of subject content, develop students’ analytical, interpersonal, leadership, communications, problem-solving, computational, and decision-making skills and abilities. These may take the form of undergraduate research opportunities, service learning, case studies, or other experiential learning activities;

• Creating career placement or higher education academic counseling activities, with the expected outcome of encouraging postsecondary graduates to pursue higher degrees, especially those that support at least one of the five NIFA Priority Areas;

• Developing Internet-based approaches and systems for multi-institutional delivery and sharing of curriculum content; or

• Other approaches to achieve HEC program goals.

(2) Increasing Faculty Teaching Competencies. This Need Area promotes postsecondary-focused activities that improve faculty members’ teaching competency and subject matter expertise in order to address emerging student demographic composition and learning styles. Developmental activities may include both formal training and informal continuing education.

The purpose of this Need Area is to advance faculty development in the areas of teaching competency and leadership, subject matter expertise, or student recruitment and advising skills, in order to better advise and provide students the experience or knowledge that will encourage them to pursue advanced postsecondary degrees in the food and agricultural sciences, or prepare them for the food and agricultural sciences workforce. Training of targeted faculty recipients shall be intentional and relevant to the identified educational needs of the students, who will be the beneficiaries of such faculty development. Proposals may emphasize, but are not limited to: obtaining experience with recent developments and new applications in a discipline supporting at least one of the five NIFA Priority Areas, expanding competence using innovative technologies and new methods of instructional delivery, or in improving student advising skills. Any individual recipient of federal funds must be an "eligible participant" as defined in the definitions section of this RFA (Part VIII, E.).

Examples of eligible projects in this Need Area may include, but are not limited to, the following strategies:

• Developing a self-sustaining model for faculty professional development that better prepares new faculty for teaching careers, or provides retraining for experienced faculty;

• Promoting teaching and advising strategies to increase faculty understanding of how to recruit and retain populations and cultures traditionally underrepresented in the food and agricultural sciences workforce;

• Increasing the number, quality and diversity of postsecondary-level students enrolled in agricultural education degree programs, and engaging these students (and/or existing faculty in agricultural education) to more effectively interact with K-14 programs, especially to increase food and agriculture sciences STEM education and career awareness among K-14 students and teachers;

• Creating assessments that document student learning outcomes or that identify conceptual areas or skills particularly challenging to students, followed by appropriate changes in instructional approaches to effectively address these issues;

• Establishing systems that improve student learning across a curriculum, and identifying ways to redesign curricula to meet goals for achieving improved student learning and competencies;

• Integrating current science and pedagogy into the teacher preparation curriculum or professional development program (this may involve actual hands-on research experiences for teachers and as applicable may be gained from partner institutions with strong research infrastructure and carried out as a summer sabbatical);

• Exploring Internet-based approaches for faculty professional development; or

• Other approaches to achieve HEC program goals.

(3) Facilitating Interaction with Other Academic Institutions. This Need Area promotes postsecondary-focused activities that promote linkages between secondary, 2-year postsecondary, and/or baccalaureate degree-granting institutions to maximize the development and use of resources supporting instruction within any of the five NIFA Priority Areas. Although this Need Area emphasizes partnerships with secondary or 2-year postsecondary academic institutions, any planned activities must primarily support postsecondary instruction (i.e., providing coursework targeted at undergraduate students, but that may also be available for advanced placement credit for secondary students; for transfer credit from associate-degree programs into baccalaureate-level programs; or for postsecondary faculty development that includes research sabbaticals). The intent of these activities is to encourage and facilitate matriculation into postsecondary programs within disciplines supporting any of the five NIFA Priority Areas. Emphasis between secondary and higher education institutions may focus on, but is not limited to, the development and use of articulation agreements, 2+2 or 2+2+2 arrangements, advanced placement credit transfer, or the sharing of faculty and facilities. Partnerships, collaborative arrangements and shared resources between institutions (including course credit sharing arrangements) are encouraged.

Projects shall contribute to the academic community’s understanding about how new strategies are transferred to diverse settings and about how they impact student learning. Evaluation plans shall explore opportunities for adapting new strategies in diverse educational settings. Projects that specifically address challenges to achieving widespread adoption of proven practice are especially encouraged.

Examples of eligible projects in this Need Area may include, but are not limited to, the following strategies:

• A project that focuses on developing and implementing comprehensive, multi-institutional practices proven to recruit and retain K-14 level graduates, with a focus on cultivating those students to pursue a postsecondary degree (Note: HEC grant funding may not be used to provide student scholarships or other tuition-remission activity);

• A collaborative project between faculty from K-12, two-year postsecondary, and baccalaureate-level schools that develops a functional plan facilitating seamless transfer of course credit between institutions;

• An activity promoting faculty exchanges to help update course content or to encourage increased, hands-on student research experiences;

• A pilot project that explores the practical aspects of using remote laboratories or instruction among several institutions;

• A program to reduce duplication of similar educational resources across institutions and to increase instructional efficiencies. Examples may include multi-institutional or interstate approaches to curriculum development, faculty sharing, cross enrollments, joint degrees, regionalization of academic programs, regional and national workshops and symposia, and similar methodologies;

• A project that will result in establishing and implementing programs or procedures (faculty sharing, articulation agreements, electronic exchange of coursework, … etc.) to disseminate curricula, instructional methods, or training practices to faculty across the state or region; or

• Other approaches to achieve HEC program goals.

(b) Unallowable Costs: NIFA has determined that grant funds awarded under this authority to address any Need Area may not be used for student tuition remission, room and board, academic fees or other financial assistance (no scholarships or fellowships). Also, funds may not be used for the renovation or refurbishment of research, education, or extension space; the purchase or installation of fixed equipment in such space; or the planning, repair, rehabilitation, acquisition, or construction of buildings or facilities (i.e., no greenhouses, laboratories, barns, or other structures). Promotional items (e.g., T-shirts and other give-a-ways) and food functions (e.g., cookouts or other social meal gatherings) are considered ‘entertainment’ expenses, and are also not allowed under this grants program. Note: Under Federal cost principles, restricted items (like those mentioned directly above) are not permitted for use as an applicant’s contribution to meeting the matching funds requirement for this grants program.

(c) HEC- funded projects shall engage more than a single course or an individual instructor.

Projects must promote and strengthen academic instruction that leads to completion of a student’s formal degree (non-credit or after-school instruction not contributing toward a student’s degree program is not supported by this grants program).

(d) Stipends to support students’ experiential, academic learning activities outside of the traditional classroom are permitted (as long as such activities are clearly related to a student’s degree program and are not extracurricular). Stipends may be requested for materials or supplies to facilitate a student’s broad exposure to research/field techniques and methodologies, as well as for reasonable travel expenses and per diem related to student educational experiences (e.g., field trips, data collection, and scientific meetings) directly supporting this funded project. In order for the students to be provided a stipend, they must be currently matriculating in the institution(s) where the projects are being implemented. Stipends may not be used for tuition or scholarships.

(e) Note: Any individual (eligible participant) receiving Federal funds via any Need Area above must be a citizen or national of the United States, as defined in this RFA (see Part VIII, E.). Where eligibility is claimed under 8 U.S.C. 1101(a) (22), documentary evidence from the Immigration and Naturalization Service as to such eligibility must be made available to NIFA upon request.

(f) Project design shall reflect an awareness of the diversity of the food and agriculture sciences STEM education community in the United States, and the project shall include mechanisms for impacting or including a significant proportion of this community.

Projects are expected to encourage broad participation of students in food and agriculture sciences STEM disciplines.

(g) Funded project outcomes are expected to continue after NIFA funding ends (See

Dissemination and Continuation Plans section #4, below).

3. Project Evaluation Plan All projects, regardless of the scope or program component they address, must have an evaluation plan that includes both a strategy for monitoring the project as it evolves (to provide feedback to guide these efforts), as well as a strategy for evaluating the effectiveness of the project in achieving its goals and for identifying positive and negative findings when the project is completed.

Evaluation Information that Must Be in Your Grant Application:

a) The evaluation section of your application shall briefly present from two to five main project goals that directly support the two HEC Program Goals (Part I. A.).

Application reviewers and staff will be looking for an evaluation plan -and accompanying assessment measures- that focus on gains or changes in knowledge, skills, behaviors, and/or attitudes of the target audience(s). You may want to consider including the following information in your application:

1. A proposed measure of student knowledge/learning or interest in the food and agriculture sciences that you think will result from your proposed project. You shall identify the measurement instrument or method that will be used, but selecting something that is valid and reliable is recommended.

Example: The purpose of the project is to develop new instructional materials in a course on human nutrition. At the conclusion of the project, the PD administers pre-and posttest surveys to students asking them to rate the degree to which the instructional materials influenced their interest in human nutrition.

2. The anticipated number and type of products created or anticipated number of students/faculty served based on the target area(s) proposed in the project.

Examples of numeric information by target area to include in your proposal are listed below. Please note that this list is not comprehensive; quantify the number of products created and students/faculty served when possible.

Curriculum Development, Instructional Delivery Systems, and Expanding Student Career Opportunities:

- # of students enrolled in course/program, using materials, participating in experiential learning opportunities

- # of courses or credits/credit hours developed

- Type of course, curriculum, or instructional methodology

- # of student experiential learning opportunities at businesses, organizations, non-profits, academic institutions, federal agencies

- # of internships, research opportunities, study abroad opportunities, or peer mentoring opportunities developed,

- Or other, similar indicators

Increasing Faculty Teaching Competency Opportunities:

- # of faculty served

- # of workshops, professional meetings, sabbaticals attended

- # of publications, presentations that resulted from opportunity

- Type of opportunity – workshop, professional meeting, sabbatical, etc.

- Or other, similar indicators

Facilitating Interaction with Other Institutions:

- # of collaborations between institutions

- Type of institutions involved in collaborations

- # and types of meaningful products resulting from planned interactions (e.g., curricula, faculty professional development opportunities, workshops, etc.)

- # of faculty served

- # students served

- Or other, similar indicators

The evaluation may also include assessment of other outcomes, particularly if the project aims to change organizational structures, create cost-efficiencies, or achieve other ends not specifically represented by learning. Explain the data gathering procedures to monitor and assess progress toward intended project goals. When describing the measurement instruments you plan to use (surveys, interviews, focus groups, assessments of e-portfolios or capstone projects, measures of class performance, scores on standardized tests, cost-benefit analyses, etc.), be sure to mention why they are appropriate to gauging success.

b) The evaluation plan section shall make a convincing case to reviewers that -at the conclusion of the grant- the grantee could report the extent to which learning and engagement outcomes, professional development goals, and/or organizational outcomes have been achieved. Reviewers will be looking for evidence that the applicant thought about how to measure what worked, what did not work as planned, and what adjustments could be made to enhance program outcomes in the future.

Collection of this evidence is critical to achieving HEC’s goal of making data about educational improvements and innovation available to the education community. An evaluation plan that only indicates a desire to develop assessment measures once the project is underway, and an eventual description of resulting project activities and outcomes, would be considered a poorly prepared and inadequate evaluation plan.

c) The project budget shall contain funding to either hire an outside project evaluator, or to present convincing evidence that an appropriate evaluator is already on staff and available to provide assistance with assessment and evaluation throughout the life of the project. As a guide, up to 10 percent of grant funds may be used to support this purpose. The following activities are examples of items that may be included in the Evaluation Plan: project objectives that lend themselves most readily to measurement and evaluation, baseline assessment data and a planned collection process from a possible comparison or control group, possible measurement instruments (surveys, student journals, standardized tests, interviews, focus groups, analysis of e-portfolios or capstone projects, cost-benefit analyses, etc.), a strategy for what assessment measures will be a part of the annual and final Project Performance Reports (Part VI.

D.), and how this information will eventually be disseminated to interested parties and to the public.

d) Finally, the Evaluation Plan itself shall contain measures of 1. student learning or engagement and/or faculty professional development and 2. the number of students or faculty impacted by your project as a result of the proposed activities, either directly (through scholarships, experiential learning opportunities, workshops, teaching experiences, etc.) or indirectly (through taking a developed course or program, or participating in a recruitment or retention program). In addition, the PD shall specify metrics summarizing who benefited the most (and the least) from your project, an explanation of what revisions, improvements, or enhancements you would make, funding permitting, to increase the value of this project in the future, and ideas about how to make projects like yours more cost-effective. These, and other funded project assessments determined by the project director and evaluation team shall be reported both annually and in the final performance report (Part VI. D.). The following suggested evaluation examples are derived from the Department of Education’s Report of the Academic Competitiveness Council, May 2007, Federal STEM Goals and Metrics, Education Undergraduate National Goals and Metrics.

“To demonstrate progress toward increasing the number of graduates, the following metric is suggested: first provide baseline data for the year preceding the grant award showing the number and/or percentage of students who declare and/or complete a major program of study of agriscience or agribusiness within your unit; and second, provide similar data for the final year of the grant and include an assessment of the impact of your project on changes from the baseline data. List the expected number of students benefiting from this project and their level of education, a table is recommended.

To demonstrate progress toward increasing the quality of instruction, the following metric is suggested: first provide baseline data for the year preceding the grant award showing the current number and/or percentage of graduates who either graduate and pursue a vocation in the food and agricultural sciences, or who pursue advanced degrees within the food and agricultural sciences; and second, provide similar data for the final year of the grant and include an assessment of the impact of your project on changes from the baseline data”.

Suggested resources to obtain quantitative, baseline, student enrollment, degrees granted and employment data for comparison purposes; postsecondary institutions may find appropriate information in the Food and Agricultural Education Information System (FAEIS) at:

http://faeis.ahnrit.vt.edu/ , and from the publication: Employment Opportunities for College Graduates in Food, Renewable Energy, and the Environment United States, 2010-2015 at:

http://www.ag.purdue.edu/usda/employment/pages/default.aspx. Other, similar source(s) may also be consulted.

Applications should include elements of a logic model (see sample at the end of this document) detailing the activities, outputs, and outcomes of the proposed project. This information may be provided as a narrative or formatted into a logic model chart. The logic model planning process is a tool that should be used to develop your project before writing your proposal. Two additional pages are allowed for this information. See Part IV.B.3.

(Field 12) for details on where to attach this information to your application. More information and resources related to the logic model planning process are provided at http://www.nifa.usda.gov/about/strat_plan_logic_models.html.

Additional Resources for Project Evaluation:

http://faeis.ahnrit.vt.edu/ http://www.ag.purdue.edu/usda/employment/pages/default.aspx http://www.nifa.usda.gov/about/strat_plan_logic_models.html

• NSF 02-057: The 2002 User-Friendly Handbook for Project Evaluation, a basic guide to quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods for educational projects http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf02057/start.htm

• Field-Tested Learning Assessment Guide (FLAG): This website is designed for Science, Math, Engineering, and Technology Instructors who are interested in new approaches to evaluating student learning, attitudes, and performance. It has a primer on assessment and evaluation, classroom assessment techniques, discipline-specific tools, and resources - all in a searchable, downloadable data base, http://www.flaguide.org/

• American Evaluation Association. Online Resources (http://www.eval.org/resources.asp)

4. Dissemination & Continuation Plans Include in the project’s Dissemination Plan (see Part IV, B.3. Field 8.2.e.), a description of how the applicant plans to communicate project accomplishments (products, results and impacts, etc.) to the broadest extent throughout the academic community. This may include educational journals or other professional discipline publications, and presentations at regional or national conferences and workshops, including the HEC Project Directors Conference (see Part VI, D.1.).

Continuation Plan: Applicants are also expected to include a statement describing how project outcomes are expected to continue after NIFA funding ends. This Plan should include expected outputs and how these will become institutionalized. Also, describe any strategies for adapting or expanding these outputs for a larger audience. Provide details of these changes, what are the expected outcomes, and the targeted audience who benefits from this project.

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf02057/start.htm http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/good-bye?http://www.flaguide.org/ http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/good-bye?http://www.eval.org/resources.asp

PART II—AWARD INFORMATION

A. Available Funding

NIFA anticipates approximately $4.77 million will be available to fund applications in FY 2013, and has no commitment to fund any particular application or to make a specific number of awards. This RFA is being released prior to the passage of an Appropriations Act for FY 2013.

Enactment of additional Continuing Resolutions or an Appropriations Act may affect the availability or level of funding for this program.

Awards issued as a result of this RFA will have designated the Automated Standard Applications for Payment System (ASAP), operated by the Department of Treasury’s Financial Management Service, as the payment system for funds. For more information see http://www.nifa.usda.gov/business/method_of_payment.html.

B. Types of Applications

For this grants program, applications may only be submitted as one of the following types of requests:

(1) New application. This is a project application that has not been previously submitted to the HEC Program. All new applications will be reviewed competitively using the selection process and evaluation criteria described in Part V—Application Review Requirements.

(2) Resubmitted application. This is a project application that had previously been submitted to the HEC Program but not funded. Applicants must respond to the previous review panel summary (use R&R Other Project Information, (Field 12- Other Attachments) on the Form (See Part IV, B.3.)). Resubmitted applications must be received by the relevant due dates, will be evaluated in competition with other pending applications in appropriate area to which they are assigned, and will be reviewed according to the same evaluation criteria as new applications.

C. Project Types

Applicants may submit one of the following four types of projects:

1. Conference/Planning Proposal Applicants in this Project Type may request up to $30,000 (total conference, not per year) to facilitate strategic planning session(s) required of faculty, industry, professional association, community leaders, or other necessary participants for the specific purpose of developing a formal plan leading to a subsequent submission of a Large-scale (state or region) comprehensive initiatives (LCI), as described directly below in C.4. A Conference/Planning grant application may not be submitted in the same year for which a LCI application for the same project is also submitted.

2. Regular Project Proposal (Single Institution/Organization)

Applicants may request up to $150,000 (total, not per year) for a Regular Project Proposal.

In a Regular Project Proposal, the applicant executes the project without the requirement of sharing grant funds with other project partners.

3. Joint Project Proposal (Applicant + Two or more Partners) Applicants may request up to $300,000 (total, not per year) for a Joint Project Proposal. In a Joint Project Proposal, the applicant executes the project with assistance from at least two additional partners. The partners must share grant funds (see explanation of required funds distribution percentage among partners in the definition of a Joint Project Proposal in Part VIII, E.). [Note: This ‘Joint Project Proposal’ Project Type may be dropped entirely in future HEC grant competitions and replaced by the new Large-scale (state or region) comprehensive initiatives (LCI) described directly below in item C.4.]

Note: Joint Projects must include both the R&R Fed and Non-Fed Budget and the R&R Fed and Non-Fed Subaward Budget Attachment Forms.