IUSE/Professional Formation of Engineers: Revolutionizing Engineering Departments | 22 587

Opportunity Information: Apply for 22 587

The National Science Foundation (NSF) funding opportunity "IUSE/Professional Formation of Engineers: Revolutionizing Engineering Departments" (RED) supports ambitious, department-level efforts to transform undergraduate engineering and engineering technology education. The program is rooted in evidence from earlier NSF investments showing that many engineering programs have made meaningful progress at the start and end of the curriculum: first-year experiences are often more engaging and professionally oriented, and senior capstone design has become a stronger culminating experience where students integrate technical knowledge with professional skills. RED is motivated by a persistent gap in the middle years of the degree (typically the sophomore and junior years), where the skills and competencies students need for capstone work and professional engineering practice are often not developed with the same consistency or emphasis. In practice, this means students may get an engaging introduction to engineering early on and a high-stakes capstone at the end, but spend much of the middle of the program in traditional, siloed course structures that do not deliberately build professional identity, design judgment, communication, teamwork, or other professional capacities alongside technical depth.

RED is jointly supported by NSF's Directorates for Engineering (ENG) and Education and Human Resources (EHR), and it aligns with the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) framework and the Professional Formation of Engineers (PFE) initiative. The central theme is not just improving individual courses, but changing the underlying organizational and cultural systems inside engineering departments. Projects are expected to rethink what it means to educate engineers by involving and coordinating multiple stakeholders, including students, faculty, staff, and often industry partners. The solicitation highlights that "revolutionary" approaches can take many forms, such as redefining what content is considered core (the "canon" of engineering), restructuring how courses are designed and sequenced, creating new departmental structures, or building stronger educational collaborations with industry. What ties these approaches together is a focus on sustainable change in how departments operate, make decisions, and support teaching and learning across the entire curriculum.

To support both invention and scaling, the RED program is organized into three tracks. RED Innovation funds the development of genuinely new, high-impact approaches and change strategies intended to transform undergraduate engineering education at the department level. RED Adaptation and Implementation (RED A&I) supports the local adaptation and implementation of evidence-based organizational change strategies that have shown promise elsewhere, with the goal of spreading effective transformation beyond the original settings in which it was developed. RED Two-Year focuses on radically new approaches across multiple two-year institutions, aiming to broaden and strengthen pathways into engineering and engineering technology, which is especially important for access, transfer, and workforce development.

Across all tracks, proposals are expected to address the cultural, organizational, structural, and pedagogical shifts needed to produce a department where students are consistently engaged, build both technical and professional skills over time, and develop a clear identity as future professional engineers or engineering technologists. The emphasis is on the department's disciplinary courses and program (not isolated add-ons), and the program explicitly expects that successful initiatives will be institutionalized by the end of the grant period, meaning the changes should be embedded into normal departmental practice rather than disappearing when funding ends.

Administratively, this is an NSF discretionary grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number 22-587) in the Science and Technology and other Research and Development category, associated with CFDA numbers 47.041 and 47.076. The listed award ceiling is $3,000,000, with an anticipated nine awards in the competition. Eligibility is noted as "Others" with further clarification in the full solicitation. The opportunity was created April 16, 2022, with an original closing date of July 18, 2022.

• 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 Apr 16, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 18, 2022. (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 $3,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 9 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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