Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) -- Increasing Support for Families

The purpose of this program is to enhance support to family members of patients with a suspected or diagnosed case of human prion disease as well as enhance support for national surveillancefor CJD and its emerging variants by (1) providing family members of such patients with easy access to consultations with persons experienced and knowledgeable about practical issues related to this disease, 2) facilitating educational and other mutually beneficial interaction of researchers with family members of CJD patients (3) increasing general awareness about CJD and (4) increasing the number of autopsies of suspected CJD cases.

Amount: $325,000

Date due: April 19, 2010 (Letter of intent); June 4, 2010 (proposal)

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Fostering Interdisciplinary Research on Education (FIRE)

FIRE is a new strand of the Research and Evaluation on Education in Science and Engineering (REESE) program (NSF 09-601) and it is anticipated that after this first competition, FIRE will be incorporated into the REESE solicitation. The FIRE program seeks to facilitate the process by which scholars can cross disciplinary boundaries to acquire the skills and knowledge that would improve their abilities to conduct rigorous research on STEM learning and education.

The primary goal of the strand is to facilitate the development of innovative theoretical, methodological, and analytic approaches to understanding complex STEM education issues of national importance and, by so doing, make progress toward solving them. A secondary goal of the strand is to broaden and deepen the pool of investigators engaged in STEM educational research. In order to address this goal, investigators must pair with a mentoring scientist in a to-be-learned field of interest. Proposals therefore have both a research and a professional development component. Investigators may apply at any point in their post-graduate careers.

Amount: $400,000 (across two years)

Date due: May 20, 2010

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