IUSE/Professional Formation of Engineers: Revolutionizing Engineering Departments | 23 553

Opportunity Information: Apply for 23 553

The National Science Foundation (NSF) funding opportunity titled "IUSE/Professional Formation of Engineers: Revolutionizing Engineering Departments" (RED), Funding Opportunity Number 23-553, supports ambitious efforts to rethink how engineering education is organized and delivered. It sits within NSF's broader Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) framework and the Professional Formation of Engineers (PFE) initiative, and it is funded through NSF's Directorates for Engineering (ENG) and STEM Education (EDU). The opportunity is offered as a discretionary grant in the science and technology research and development category (CFDA 47.041 and 47.076).

The core rationale behind RED is that earlier NSF investments have helped strengthen the beginning and end of the engineering undergraduate experience, but the "middle" years often lag behind. Evaluations of prior engineering education programs show meaningful improvements in the first year, such as introducing engineering content earlier, using active learning, incorporating design experiences, and helping students start to build professional skills and an understanding of what engineers do. At the other end, many programs have improved senior capstone design courses, where students are expected to integrate technical learning with professional skills, apply reflective judgment, make decisions, and communicate results clearly. Even so, NSF notes a persistent gap: many of the competencies needed for capstone work and for professional practice are introduced only lightly in the first year and then not reinforced or developed deeply through the sophomore and junior years. RED is meant to address that structural weakness by encouraging transformational change at the departmental level, not just course-by-course tweaks.

RED projects are characterized by their emphasis on major organizational and cultural change inside engineering units. Rather than focusing only on individual teaching strategies, these projects aim to shift what a department values, how it structures learning experiences, how faculty and staff work together, and how students develop a sense of belonging and professional identity. NSF describes "revolutionary" approaches broadly, including redefining what counts as core engineering knowledge, redesigning how courses are structured and sequenced, creating new departmental structures, and building educational collaborations with industry. Across these ideas, a consistent theme is engaging multiple stakeholders, including students, faculty, staff, and industry partners, in rethinking what it means to provide an engineering program that builds both technical capability and professional formation.

This particular solicitation is limited to the RED Two-Year track. The Two-Year track targets pathways from two-year institutions into four-year engineering and engineering technology degree programs. The intent is to support multiple two-year institutions in developing radically new approaches that expand and strengthen the transfer pipeline, particularly for students in programs such as pre-engineering, engineering, and engineering technology. Proposed projects are expected to grapple with the cultural, organizational, structural, and pedagogical changes required to transform departments so that students are actively engaged, steadily develop technical and professional skills, and build identities as future professional engineers. Importantly, the focus should be on the department's disciplinary courses and the overall program, meaning the effort should be anchored in the core educational experiences that shape student progression and preparedness for transfer.

A key expectation is sustainability beyond the grant period. RED initiatives are not meant to be temporary pilots that disappear when funding ends; NSF states that project outcomes should be institutionalized by the end of the award. In practice, that implies changes that can persist through policy, curriculum structures, faculty roles and incentives, advising systems, partnership agreements, or other durable mechanisms that embed the new approach into normal departmental operations.

For this competition, NSF anticipated making about three awards, with an award ceiling of up to $2,000,000 per project. The original closing date listed for proposal submission was May 10, 2023. Eligibility is listed broadly as "Others," with further clarification expected in the solicitation's additional eligibility text, which typically spells out the specific institution types and any constraints for the Two-Year track.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "IUSE/Professional Formation of Engineers: Revolutionizing Engineering Departments" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.041, 47.076.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jan 27, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 10, 2023. (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 $2,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 3 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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