Broadening Participation in Computing | 21 571

Opportunity Information: Apply for 21 571

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) program is a discretionary grant opportunity focused on increasing the number of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who earn post-secondary degrees in computing fields, while also expanding participation among groups that have been historically underrepresented in computing. The solicitation explicitly highlights populations that may be served, including women, people with disabilities, Blacks and African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. The central idea is not only to bring more students into computing, but to keep them there through key transition points, supporting persistence from early study through undergraduate and graduate degrees, and even into faculty pathways when appropriate.

BPC is designed to mobilize the broader computing education and research community around strategies that measurably improve recruitment and retention. NSF is looking for projects that develop and test innovative methods, frameworks, and interventions, as well as efforts that scale or broaden the reach of practices that already have evidence behind them. A major requirement across the program is national relevance and potential national impact. That means proposed work should either produce an approach that could be widely adopted beyond the originating institution(s), or meaningfully expand the reach of known effective practices to larger audiences, additional regions, or new participant populations.

The program supports three main award types: Alliances, Demonstration Projects, and Supplements. Alliances are the largest and most comprehensive projects. They are meant to be broad coalitions that can include colleges and universities, K-12 schools, government partners, industry, professional societies, and other nonprofit organizations. These coalitions operate at a regional or national scale and typically work across multiple points in the academic pipeline (for example, supporting transitions from K-12 to college, from lower-division to upper-division coursework, from undergraduate to graduate study, and potentially into academic careers). Alliances are positioned as national resources intended to help drive systemic change in computing education and participation. The solicitation also allows for Alliance Extensions: established Alliances that can demonstrate national impact may seek additional funding to extend the duration and expand the scope of their work, such as reaching additional student groups, adding partners, or launching additional projects that significantly increase impact for the populations served.

Demonstration Projects (DPs) are smaller and more targeted than Alliances, with an emphasis on piloting, refining, and generating evidence for approaches that could later be scaled. These projects may come from a single institution or a small set of partners, and they often focus on a single underrepresented community, a single stage of the pathway, or a specific barrier to participation in computing. The expectation is that successful Demonstration Projects will produce lessons, models, or results that can be adopted by Alliances or otherwise expanded to reach broader populations. In addition to improving opportunities for participants, Demonstration Projects are expected to contribute to knowledge about effective teaching and learning in computing for students from underrepresented groups.

Both Alliances and Demonstration Projects are expected to include strong evaluation components, with formative evaluation (to improve the project while it is underway) and summative evaluation (to assess outcomes and impact). NSF signals that competitive proposals will show meaningful impact in two dimensions: the quality of the opportunities provided to participants (for example, improved learning experiences, mentoring, community, research exposure, or supportive transitions) and the likely scale of reach (how many participants could ultimately benefit, directly or through adoption and replication).

The third funding category, Supplements, is intended for existing NSF CISE (Computer and Information Science and Engineering) research awards. These supplements are meant to bring more computing researchers into substantive BPC work by enabling them to strengthen and expand the BPC efforts associated with an existing project. In practice, this category supports the idea that broadening participation should be integrated into the computing research enterprise, not treated as separate from it.

From the source information provided, this opportunity is NSF funding opportunity number 21-571 (CFDA 47.070), categorized under Science and Technology and other Research and Development. The instrument type is a grant, with an award ceiling listed as $1,200,000 and an expected number of awards around 30. The posting dates indicate a creation date of March 16, 2021, with an original closing date of June 14, 2021. Eligibility is listed as "Others" with additional eligibility details referenced in the full solicitation, suggesting that a range of organizations may apply depending on NSF rules and the specific requirements described in the complete program announcement.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Broadening Participation in Computing" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.070.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 16, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 14, 2021. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,200,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 30 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for 21 571

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