Deadline: 21-Oct-21
Applications are now open for ‘Creating an Educational Nexus for Training in Experimental Rigor’ (CENTER) to facilitate teaching of fundamental principles of rigorous biomedical research by developing an online educational resource for use by a broad range of researchers in an array of learning environments. The purpose of this FOA is to build, evaluate, and disseminate a user-friendly, harmonized, and openly accessible educational resource to promote awareness, understanding, and utilization of the principles of rigorous biomedical research.
It will provide comprehensive administrative oversight, expertise required to establish and maintain the educational platform, and infrastructure to create cutting-edge digital educational components (e.g. videos, interactive activities, relevant scientific examples). These components will be adapted from content provided by subject matter experts supported by the companion Materials to Enhance Training in Experimental Rigor.
It will assemble and manage a team of platform developers, specialists in creating and evaluating engaging digital content, and experts in pedagogy and educational techniques in order to carry out these CENTER activities.
CENTER will create, modify, and maintain the educational resource’s digital platform and coordinate collaborations between the external subject matter experts providing the scholarly content, champions of rigor in the scientific community, and CENTER’s technical and educational experts ensuring high-quality educational delivery and impact.
Objectives
- The objective of CENTER is to provide the scientific community with an open and freely available, easily discoverable, engaging, modular, adaptable, and upgradable educational resource on the principles of rigorous research and to partner with the scientific community during development, evaluation, and dissemination.
- Applicants will produce a set of deliverables that can be shared with the research community by the end of the five-year project period.
- These deliverables will include an educational platform, encompassing the platform interface and website; a suite of interactive and engaging educational units on the principles of rigorous biomedical research; and evaluations of the platform and the effectiveness of its educational approaches.
- An educational unit is defined as an assortment of educational materials, lessons, and activities that collectively address a single principle of rigorous research and whose content will be developed in collaboration with externally funded subject matter experts.
- It is estimated that one educational unit, at its maximal depth and breadth of material, will provide the equivalent of one week of instructional material if used as part of a traditional undergraduate or graduate course, although real-world users will also be able to select short, individual components of the unit with which to interact (e.g. a single 5-minute video or set of step-by-step instructions).
Focus Areas
- A successful CENTER application will have strengths in four major areas:
- leadership and project management, building and dissemination of digital interfaces and educational materials, evaluation of educational effectiveness, and collaboration with and outreach to the scientific community.
- Qualifications for CENTER applicants should include familiarity with the research environment and expertise in project management, digital platform and educational technology development, pedagogy, evaluation of educational products, and technology dissemination.
Topics
It is expected that the individual educational units will relate to general topics on performing rigorous biomedical research, including, but not limited to:
- Understanding the philosophical foundations of science
- Evaluating existing evidence
- Designing rigorous experiments with validated methods and materials
- Reducing the effects of a broad range of cognitive biases
- Planning and executing appropriate analyses
- Conducting experiments and collecting data
- Understanding and measuring uncertainty
- Managing data and project workflows
- Reporting methodology and results transparently
Activities
- Recruiting and coordinating expertise pertinent to building and disseminating a new online educational resource, including but not limited to software and website development, multimedia production, pedagogy and other educational approaches, and evaluation of educational effectiveness.
- Managing project timelines, including building infrastructure and capacity within the first year of funding so that CENTER is prepared to release the basic platform within the first year of funding, compile the first set of educational units during the second year of funding, and evaluate and disseminate the first set of educational units during the third year of funding.
- The remaining educational units should be evaluated and disseminated by the fourth and fifth years of funding.
- Effectively collaborating with subject matter experts supported by the companion METER FOA to create educational units that are interactive, engaging, and effective at promoting awareness, understanding, and utilization of fundamental principles of rigorous biomedical research.
- This includes effective use of multi-modal media (e.g. text, video, graphics, animations, interactive features, activities).
- Developing an educational resource that is user-friendly, free to use, and accessible to all individuals (i.e. Section 508 compliant).
- Building and sustaining cutting-edge and attractive digital interfaces to support effective educational content that is harmonized across educational units.
- Coordinating and implementing tests of the resource platform, evaluation of its performance and educational impact, and iterative improvement in response to feedback from potential users of the resource, including educators and scientists at various career stages and institutions that could implement the resource in their programs.
- Disseminating the resource and its open-source components to the broader scientific community, including performing outreach to academic institutions, researchers, non-profit organizations, and education professionals.
- Facilitating regular communication with the Steering Committee, External Advisory Committee, METER awardees, NINDS staff, and other stakeholders.
- Partnering with rigor champions in the scientific community who are actively seeking to change the culture to advance the quality of science more broadly.
- Organizing and coordinating annual meetings, beginning one year after initial funding, to enhance communication and collaboration between CENTER and the scientific community, including METER awardees, active researchers, rigor champions, resource users and evaluators, education professionals, and educational technology developers.
Eligibility Criteria
- Higher Education Institutions
- Public/State Controlled Institutions of Higher Education
- Private Institutions of Higher Education
- The following types of Higher Education Institutions are always encouraged to apply for NIH support as Public or Private Institutions of Higher Education:
- Hispanic-serving Institutions
- Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
- Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs)
- Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions
- Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs)
- Nonprofits Other Than Institutions of Higher Education
- Nonprofits with 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
- Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
- For-Profit Organizations
- Small Businesses
- For-Profit Organizations (Other than Small Businesses)
- Local Governments
- State Governments
- County Governments
- City or Township Governments
- Special District Governments
- Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Federally Recognized)
- Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Other than Federally Recognized)
- Federal Governments
- Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government
- U.S. Territory or Possession
- Other
- Independent School Districts
- Public Housing Authorities/Indian Housing Authorities
- Native American Tribal Organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
- Faith-based or Community-based Organizations
- Regional Organizations
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=335244