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Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC)

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NSF 21-571

Important information about NSF’s implementation of the revised 2 CFR

NSF Financial Assistance awards (grants and cooperative agreements) made on or after October 1, 2024, will be subject to the applicable set of award conditions, dated October 1, 2024, available on the NSF website. These terms and conditions are consistent with the revised guidance specified in the OMB Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance published in the Federal Register on April 22, 2024.

Important information for proposers

All proposals must be submitted in accordance with the requirements specified in this funding opportunity and in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) that is in effect for the relevant due date to which the proposal is being submitted. It is the responsibility of the proposer to ensure that the proposal meets these requirements. Submitting a proposal prior to a specified deadline does not negate this requirement.

Supports increasing the participation of people from groups that are underrepresented in computing through alliances, demonstration projects and supplemental funding to current awardees of the Directorate of Computer and Information Science and Engineering.

Supports increasing the participation of people from groups that are underrepresented in computing through alliances, demonstration projects and supplemental funding to current awardees of the Directorate of Computer and Information Science and Engineering.

Synopsis

The Broadening Participation in Computing program (BPC) aims to significantly increase the number of U.S. citizens and permanent residents receiving post-secondary degrees in the computing disciplines, and to encourage participation of other underrepresented groups in the discipline. These groups may include women, persons with disabilities, Blacks and African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. With this solicitation, the BPC program seeks to engage the computing community to develop and implement innovative methods, frameworks, and strategies to improve recruitment and retention of these students through undergraduate and graduate degrees. Projects that target stages of the academic pipeline through faculty ranks are encouraged. All BPC projects must have the potential for widespread, national impact. That is, they should either develop an effective practice that could be widely deployed, or they should deploy existing effective practices to reach larger audiences.

The BPC program will support three categories of awards: Alliances, Demonstration Projects, and Supplements.

Alliances are broad coalitions of academic institutions of higher learning, K-12 schools, government, industry, professional societies, and other not-for-profit organizations that design and carry out comprehensive programs addressing underrepresentation in the computing disciplines. They have a large regional or national scope. Alliances operate across multiple stages of the academic pipeline and address one or several intended groups that are underrepresented. Collectively, Alliances serve as a national resource for achieving the transformation of computing education.

Existing Alliances with documented evidence of national impact on broadening participation in computing may apply for additional funding. An Alliance Extension increases the duration of the Alliance award as well as its scope, introducing additional student groups to be reached, partners, and/or projects with the intended purpose of significant impact to the populations served.

Demonstration Projects (DPs) are more focused than Alliance projects. Typical DPs pilot innovative programs that, once fully developed, could be incorporated into the activities of an existing or new Alliance, or otherwise scaled up for widespread impact. Examples include projects proposed by a single institution or those that focus on a single underrepresented community, a single point in the academic pathway, or a single impediment to full participation in computing. Demonstration projects should contribute knowledge to our understanding of effective teaching and learning of computing for students from groups underrepresented in computing. 

Both Alliances and Demonstration Projects have significant evaluation efforts with both formative and summative components. Competitive projects will have significant impact both in the quality of opportunities afforded to participants and in the number of participants potentially served. 

Supplements  to existing CISE research awards are intended to engage more members of the computing research community in significant BPC efforts as part of a project’s BPC plan.

 

Program contacts

General inquiries may be addressed to cise-bpc@nsf.gov.

Jeffrey Forbes
Program Director, CISE/CNS
jforbes@nsf.gov (703) 292-8950 CISE/CCF
Fay Cobb Payton
Program Director, CISE/CNS
fpayton@nsf.gov (703) 292-7939
Allyson Kennedy
Program Director, CISE/CNS
aykenned@nsf.gov (703) 292-8950 CISE/CCF
Michelle L. Rogers
Program Director, CISE/CNS
mlrogers@nsf.gov (703) 292-7786 CISE/CCF

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