June 16, 2022

Dear Colleagues:

With this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), the National Science Foundation notifies the community of a collaboration with the Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation (KADF) to offer supplemental funding supporting career development opportunities for women (PIs, students, participants, etc.) through the GEOPAths Program. This supplemental funding opportunity supports the empowerment of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent to fully participate in science and engineering, ensures accessibility and inclusivity to increase the involvement of communities underrepresented in STEM, and enhances capacity throughout the nation to unleash STEM talent in the U.S. to grow a diverse STEM workforce to advance the progress of science and technology.

BACKGROUND

This DCL seeks to offer regenerative, career development activities that will help mitigate the challenges many women have faced throughout their education, training, and careers that impact their ability to achieve and advance at the same rate as men. Implicit bias, gender stereotypes, disparate expectations (lower or higher), uneven levels of family responsibility, etc. can often derail the careers of women. Unfortunately, these challenges can occur at any point on the career path hampering a woman's ability to establish a career commensurate with necessary skills and be recognized for talents and professional achievements. Unchecked, these obstacles can cause serious impact on sense of belonging; and, many times, career disruptions that negatively impact the retention of women in many scientific disciplines including the geosciences.

DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES SUPPORTED

Supplemental funds can be used for reasonable expenses such as those associated with attending and/or presenting at a professional society meeting/conference, participating in a workshop, engaging in career development training, etc., as long as the activity enhances technical or professional skills. Ancillary expenses (e.g., temporary dependent care, supplies and materials, etc.) will also be allowed if adequately justified.

ELIGIBILITY

This opportunity is open only to organizations with active GEOPAths awards. The original award must be a current GEOPAths project where women (PIs, students, participants, etc.) are engaged or where additional women could be included in the project.

SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING AMOUNT

These supplemental funding requests should not exceed $5000 per individual and will provide support for time periods necessary to engage in the career development activity or the remaining life of the award, whichever is smaller. If the award to which the supplement applies expires within a year after the start date of the proposed supplemental activity, the Principal Investigator (PI) should provide this information at the time of submission to geopaths@nsf.gov as well as to the cognizant Program Director for the original award.

SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING REQUEST PREPARATION AND INSTRUCTIONS

Each supplemental funding request must follow the guidance specified in PAPPG Chapter VI.E.5.

PIs must address the following areas in no more than five pages:

• Summary of the active award, including original research vision, goals, activities, and accomplishments, spanning Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts
• Compelling justification for why there is a need for supplemental funding
• Summary of the proposed extension of the active award to conduct the proposed activities in response to this DCL
• Detailed description of the proposed activities
• Work plan describing the proposed activities, along with the goals, milestones, and predicted outcomes, including a description of how these activities will address the needed capabilities and lead to potential impact and the appropriateness of the supplemental funding request to the proposed scope and scale of the work; and
• Evaluation plan outlining tangible metrics to assess the outcomes of the proposed activities

SUBMISSION AND REVIEW

PIs interested in submitting supplemental funding requests must contact geopaths@nsf.gov prior to submitting.

PIs should note that supplemental funding requests in response to this DCL should be submitted to the original NSF program associated with the active award for which supplemental funding is requested. After the submission of their supplemental funding request, PIs should alert the cognizant Program Directors by sending an email to geopaths@nsf.gov with the proposal number assigned to the submission of their supplemental request. In addition, if the award to which the supplement applies expires within a year after the start date of the proposed supplemental activity, the PI should provide this information at the time of submission to geopaths@nsf.gov and the cognizant Program Director for the original award.

Supplemental funding requests submitted in response to this DCL will be subject to internal NSF review only, unless they require external review as mandated by the PAPPG. Relevant information about the supplemental funding requests which are under consideration for funding, along with the corresponding reviews, may be shared with representatives from KADF as appropriate.

Supplemental funding requests should be submitted by the following deadline:

September 30, 2022

Sincerely,

Alexandra R. Isern
Assistant Director for Geosciences