April 16, 2019

Dear Colleagues:

The NSF Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) and the Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) invite grantees with an active Advanced Technological Education (ATE) award to participate in this international training and education opportunity. ATE grantees can apply for supplemental funding to support international short-term visits by U.S. faculty and students at two-year Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) to vocational/technical schools and industrial institutions in Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands and Spain. The objective of this funding opportunity is to provide professional development and international experiences to U.S. faculty and students at two-year IHEs. Additionally, these visits will help foster collaborations between U.S. institutions and their foreign counterparts. ATE-I funding will support costs associated with foreign travel and subsistence abroad.

BACKGROUND

The global nature of many industries requires a reexamination into how the U.S. prepares its students to acquire the necessary technical skills to meet the workforce needs of the future. The countries listed above have a long tradition for excellent technical training at their institutions. ATE-I provides faculty members at U.S. two-year IHEs with opportunities to visit these institutions and learn best practices and tools for preparing a technically trained workforce. The intent of ATE-I is that faculty will incorporate these best practices and tools into their current teaching practices and promote global literacy among their students upon return to their home institutions.

Additionally, ATE-I will provide students an opportunity to acquire new skills and/or to expand their knowledge in their chosen fields and engage in cultural activities while in country. Through ATE-I, faculty and students will also establish relationships with their foreign colleagues that could result in long-term collaboration.

It is desirable that those countries listed above are selected for the supplemental funding request, although visits to other countries might be considered on a case by case basis.

ELIGIBILITY

Principal and co-Principal Investigators are eligible to submit ATE-I supplements. It is expected that a faculty member with disciplinary expertise would be the team leader of these visits.

SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING AMOUNT AND ALLOWABLE COSTS

Up to 20% of an ATE award may be requested for ATE-I supplements. The total amount of funding requested must not exceed $120,000 per project. NSF plans to fund approximately 10-12 supplements in FY2019, depending on availability of funds.

ATE grantees may apply for a single short-term visit or for multiple visits to one country or to multiple countries.

Funds may be used to support travel and related expenses (e.g. airfare tickets, travel visas, excess baggage), health and travel insurance to cover injury and illness outside of the U.S, and in country subsistence (e.g. lodging, meals, local transportation) for each participant.

Visits may vary in length from two to eight weeks.

SUBMISSION AND REVIEW

ATE grantees may request supplemental funding to arrange visits to vocational/technical schools, or industrial venues that collaborate with such schools in fields of technology supported by ATE, including but not limited to: advanced manufacturing technologies, agricultural and bio-technologies, energy and environmental technologies, engineering technologies, information technologies, micro- and nanotechnologies, security technologies, geospatial technologies, and applied research on technical education that informs all supported areas.

The following information should be included in the supplemental funding request:

• Justification for the selected country to visit, including specific schools or industrial sites selected and how the visit relates to the existing award;
• Description of specific activities to be conducted in country by faculty and/or students and how faculty members and students will benefit from the experience;
• Description of prior experience conducting similar initiatives and/or demonstrated ability to organize such visits;
• Plans for the Integration of lessons learned from the trip into current activities;
• Time-line for the proposed activities;
• Description of dissemination of results upon return to the U.S.; and
• Budget and budget justification.

Supplemental funding requests should be prepared and submitted via FastLane in accordance with the guidance in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG), Chapter VI.E.4.

Participation of underrepresented minorities, women and persons with disabilities is highly encouraged.

Supplemental funding requests will be reviewed internally by NSF Program Officers. All supplements are subject to (a) the availability of funds, and (b) review of the quality of the supplemental funding request.

Proposed activities must start at any time after the supplement is granted but no later than the end of calendar year 2020.

DUE DATES

Supplemental funding requests may be submitted at any time but no later than June 15th for 2019 and for subsequent years. Funding in subsequent years will be dependent on availability of funds.

CONTACTS

General questions about this Dear Colleague Letter may be addressed to the following NSF Program Officers:

• Celeste Carter, Program Director, Division of Undergraduate Education, Directorate for Education and Human Resources, (703) 292 4651. E-mail: vccarter@nsf.gov
• Sonia Ortega, Program Director, Office of International Science and Engineering, (703)292 5198. E-mail: sortega@nsf.gov

Sincerely,

Karen Marrongelle
Assistant Director
Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR)

Rebecca Keiser
Office Head
Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE)