The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) on “Preparing Applications to Participate in Phase I Ideas Labs on Undergraduate STEM Education”.  The opportunity to participate in one of three Ideas Labs to address grand challenges related to workforce development in the biological sciences, the geological sciences, and engineering was first announced in the “Improving Undergraduate STEM Education” (IUSE) program description.  The DCL provides additional guidance on the specific themes of the three Ideas Labs and the process for applying to participate.  Given the interdisciplinary themes involved and the innovative nature of the Ideas Lab process, NSF anticipates interest from a diverse range of communities, both in terms of STEM education and research disciplinary expertise, employment sector, and academic institution type.

Of particular interest to the computing education research community may be the Phase I Ideas labs in:

1. Engineering, where “engineers and social scientists will face head on the systems and structures that reproduce social inequality in engineering education and in the engineering workforce.”

2. Biology, that “will consider strategies to integrate these critical competencies in quantitative [and computational] literacy into a biology core curriculum and to study their effectiveness and/or impact to generate knowledge that will inform their broader implementation.”

Applications to participate in one of the Ideas Labs should be submitted close to the IUSE target date of February 4, 2014.