Ashoka Changemakers Grant

Ashoka Changemakers has launched the Activating Empathy: Transforming Schools to Teach What Matters grant competition. This is a global competition that seeks solutions to helping young people learn about and employ empathy to solve today's problems.

Amount: $5,000

Date due: February 23, 2012 (eligible for early entry award); March 30, 2012

For more information, click here.

Small Business Innovative Research Phase I (NIDRR)

The purposes of this program are to stimulate technological innovation in the private sector, strengthen the role of small business in meeting Federal research or research and development (R/R&D) needs, increase the commercial application of research supported by the U.S. Department of Education (Department), and improve the return on investment from federally funded research for economic and social benefits to the Nation.

The five invitational priorities are:

(1) Increased independence of individuals with disabilities in the workplace, recreational settings, or educational settings through the development of technology to support access and promote integration of individuals with disabilities.

(2) Enhanced sensory or motor function of individuals with disabilities through the development of technology to support improved functional capacity.

(3) Enhanced workforce participation through the development of technology to support access to employment, promote sustained employment, and promote employment advancement for individuals with disabilities.

(4) Enhanced community participation and living for individuals with disabilities through the development of accessible information technology including Web access technology, software, and other systems and devices that promote access to information in educational, employment, and community settings, and voting technology that improves access for individuals with disabilities.

(5) Improved interventions and increased use of health-care resources through the development of technology to support independent access to healthcare services in the community for individuals with disabilities.

Amount: $75,000

Date due: February 13, 2012

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Young Faculty Award

The Department of Defense solicits ground-breaking single-investigator proposals from junior faculty for research and development in the areas of Physical Sciences, Engineering, Mathematics, Medicine, Biology, Information and Social Sciences of interest to DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office (DSO), Microsystems Technology Office (MTO), and Information Innovation Office (I2O).

Amount: $300,000

Date due: January 19, 2012

For more information, click here.

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR)

The Department of Energy announces the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs for Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Phase I (Release 2). The objectives of these programs include increasing private sector commercialization of technology developed through Department of Energy supported research and development (R&D), stimulating technological innovation in the private sector, and improving the return on investment from Federally-funded research for economic and social benefits to the nation. DOE will support high-quality research or R&D on advanced concepts concerning important mission-related scientific or engineering problems and opportunities that are likely to lead to significant public benefit from promising research.

Amount: $150,000 (must partner with a small business)

Date due: January 31, 2012

For more information, click here.

NSF Political Science Program

The NSF Political Science Program supports scientific research that advances knowledge and understanding of citizenship, government, and politics. Research proposals are expected to be theoretically motivated, conceptually precise, methodologically rigorous, and empirically oriented. Substantive areas include, but are not limited to, American government and politics, comparative government and politics, international relations, political behavior, political economy, and political institutions.

In recent years, program awards have supported research projects on bargaining processes; campaigns and elections, electoral choice, and electoral systems; citizen support in emerging and established democracies; democratization, political change, and regime transitions; domestic and international conflict; international political economy; party activism; political psychology and political tolerance. The Program also has supported research experiences for undergraduate students and infrastructural activities, including methodological innovations, in the discipline.

Amount: Varies

Date due: January 15, 2012

For more information, click here.

Social Science Research Council seeks grant proposals

The Social Science Research Council has announced the launch of a major new project and grants program entitled "New Directions in the Study of Prayer." Supported with funding from the John Templeton Foundation and developed in conjunction with the SSRC's program on Religion and the Public Sphere, the project aims to generate innovative research on practices of prayer and to foster the development of an interdisciplinary network of scholars engaged in the study of prayer.

The project invites proposals from scholars in all disciplines for studies that will enhance knowledge of the social, cultural, psychological, and cognitive dimensions of prayer, and of its origins, variations, and correlations in human life. Of special interest are proposals for research that will shed new light on the relationships between the practice of prayer and virtue, human flourishing, altruism, and creativity, or that examine the cognitive aspects of prayer, the embeddedness of prayer in religious and nonreligious institutions, the social dimensions of prayer, and cultural variations in prayer across societies and religious traditions.

Proposals will be especially encouraged from, but will not be restricted to, the disciplines of anthropology, cognitive science, history, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, religious studies, and sociology. New Directions in the Study of Prayer will welcome proposals for projects that study any religious tradition(s) and milieu(s), and that focus on populations in any geographical region(s) of the world. Proposals must include a clearly articulated program of empirical research. Proposals may include a focus on theology but should not be restricted to theological inquiry. Historical topics are of interest only insofar as they specifically relate to practices and understandings of prayer in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Approximately twenty to twenty-five grants, ranging from $50,000 to $200,000, each with a duration of two years, will be awarded.

Amount: $50,000 - $200,000

Date due: December 1, 2011

For more information, click here.

Debate Team Grants for Departments and Schools in Universities

The Open Society Foundation (OSF) will provide up to three years of funding to colleges, universities, and other educational institutions to integrate debate across disciplines. The International Debate Education Association will implement the programs and help OSF identify and provide support to grantees.

Grants will be available for institutions that have either very small debate programs or none at all. Grants also will be made to institutions seeking to promote public debates within the broader communities that they serve and to increase the capacity of young people from marginalized communities to engage in debates concerning controversial issues affecting their lives.

Amount: $25,000

Date due: Rolling

For more information, click here.