Cyberinfrastructure Training, Education, Advancement, and Mentoring for Our 21st Century Workforce

New information, communication, and computational technologies have had profound impacts on the practice of science (in this solicitation, the term science includes the natural, mathematical, computing, and social sciences),  engineering, and education. This includes the means by which citizens of all ages use science  and engineering to enhance professional and private lives.  The systems, tools, and services emerging from these new technologies are linked to create a comprehensive cyberinfrastructure that is enabling individuals, groups, and organizations to advance research and education in ways that revolutionize who can participate, what they can do, and how they do it. Sustaining this revolution across all areas of science, engineering, and education requires the formation of a citizenry and workforce with the knowledge and skills needed to design and deploy as well as adopt and apply these cyber-based systems, tools and services over the long-term. The opportunity for such preparation should be available at all stages of formal and informal education (K-16 and lifelong), training and professional development, and must be extended to all individuals and communities.

The CI-TEAM program supports projects that integrate science and engineering research and education activities that range from local activities to global-scale efforts,  as appropriate, to  promote, leverage and utilize cyberinfrastructure systems, tools and services.

Collectively, the CI-TEAM awards will:

• Increase the numbers of scientists, engineers, educators, and/or students prepared to design, develop, adopt and deploy cyber-based tools and environments for computational science and engineering research and learning, both formal and informal. This is to include individuals  who are otherwise well prepared in the STEM disciplines.

• Produce curricular and pedagogical materials, learning technologies, and institutional models for preparing the cyberinfrastructure workforce that are broadly adaptable and/or adoptable, and publish related outcomes that inform others of promising educational approaches.

• Increase and broaden the participation of diverse groups of people and organizations as both creators and users of cyberinfrastructure for research and education.  Currently underrepresented groups include women, those in underserved rural regions of the country, those who would be the first in their family to graduate from college, and minorities including those associated with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and communities.

This solicitation seeks three types of project proposals, all aimed at the preparation of a diverse, cyberinfrastructure-savvy science and engineering workforce:

• Demonstration Projects are exploratory in nature and may be somewhat limited in scope and scale. Demonstration Projects have the potential to serve as exemplars for effective larger-scale implementation and diffusion activities in the future.

• Implementation Projects are generally larger in scope or scale and draw on prior experience with the activities or the teams proposed.

• Diffusion Projects are expected to inform and engage broad national and/or international audiences to build upon educational research and project outcomes to deploy promising educational strategies through cyberinfrastructure resources, models, and/or technologies.

Implementation and Diffusion Projects are expected to deliver sustainable learning or workforce development activities that complement ongoing NSF investment in cyberinfrastructure.

All CI-TEAM projects seek to create and maintain a broad and diverse population of individuals and institutions participating in cyberinfrastructure activities specifically and, thereby, science and engineering more generally. Toward that goal, all types of projects must include collaborations with expertise in multiple disciplines and involve partnerships that support integrated research and learning among diverse organizations including, as appropriate, academic institutions of higher learning, primary and secondary schools, government, industry, professional societies, other not-for-profit organizations, and international partners. Other key features of CI-TEAM projects involve a commitment to: leveraging existing or current development efforts in cyberinfrastructure technologies; open software standards and open educational resources; the integration of research and learning; institutional partnerships; and strategic implementation, management, and project evaluation plans. Following merit review of the proposals received, NSF expects to select for support 6 to 7 Demonstration Projects at up to $250,000 total each and 3 to 6 Implementation or Diffusion Projects at up to $1,000,000 total each that together constitute a rich portfolio of cyberinfrastructure-related workforce development activities.