Broadening Participation in Computing
Agency: National Science Foundation
Posted: 2021-03-16 | Closing date: 2025-01-16
Estimated total program funding: 12750000
Award ceiling: 1200000
Expected number of awards: 30
Cost sharing or matching requirement: No

The Broadening Participation in Computing program (BPC) aims to significantly increase the number of U.S. citizens and permanent residents receiving post-secondary degrees in the computing disciplines, and to encourage participation of other underrepresented groups in the discipline. These groups may include women, persons with disabilities, Blacks and African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. With this solicitation, the BPC program seeks to engage the computing community to develop and implement innovative methods, frameworks, and strategies to improve recruitment and retention of these students through undergraduate and graduate degrees. Projects that target stages of the academic pipeline through faculty ranks are encouraged. All BPC projects must have the potential for widespread, national impact. That is, they should either develop an effective practice that could be widely deployed, or they should deploy existing effective practices to reach larger audiences. The BPC program will support three categories of awards: Alliances, Demonstration Projects, and Supplements. Alliancesarebroad coalitions of academic institutions of higher learning,K-12 schools, government, industry, professional societies, and other not-for-profit organizations that design and carry out comprehensive programs addressing underrepresentation in the computing disciplines. They have a largeregional or national scope. Alliances operate across multiple stages of the academic pipeline and address one or several intended groups that are underrepresented. Collectively, Alliances serve as anational resource for achieving the transformation of computing education. Existing Alliances with documented evidence of national impact on broadening participation in computing may apply for additional funding.An Alliance Extension increases the duration of the Alliance award as well as its scope, introducing additional student groups to be reached, partners, and/or projects with the intended purpose of significant impact to the populations served. Demonstration Projects (DPs)are more focused than Alliance projects. Typical DPs pilot innovative programs that, once fully developed, could be incorporated into the activities of an existing or new Alliance, or otherwise scaled up for widespread impact. Examples include projects proposed by a single institution or those that focus on a single underrepresented community, a single point in the academic pathway, or a single impediment to full participation in computing. Demonstration projects should contribute knowledge to our understanding of effective teaching and learning of computing for students from groups underrepresented in computing. Both Alliances and Demonstration Projects have significant evaluation efforts with both formative and summative components. Competitive projectswill have significant impact both in the quality of opportunities afforded to participants and in the number of participants potentially served. Supplements to existing CISE research awards are intended toengage more members of the computing research community in significant BPC efforts as part of a project’s BPC plan. 

Eligibility: *Who May Submit Proposals: Proposals may only be submitted by the following:   -Non-profit, non-academic organizations: Independent museums, observatories, research laboratories, professional societies and similar organizations located in the U.S. that are directly associated with educational or research activities.   -State and Local Governments: State educational offices or organizations and local school districts.   -Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) - Two- and four-year IHEs (including community colleges) accredited in, and having a campus located in the US, acting      on behalf of their faculty members.Special Instructions for International Branch Campuses of US IHEs: If the proposal includes funding to be provided to an      international branch campus of a US institution of higher education (including through use of subawards and consultant arrangements), the proposer must explain      the benefit(s) to the project of performance at the international branch campus, and justify why the project activities cannot be performed at the US campus.