[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 3 (Monday, January 6, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 656-657]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-160]



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Part IV





Department of Education





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Institute of Education Sciences; Notice Inviting Applications for 
Grants to Support Education Research for Fiscal Year (FY) 2003; Notice

  Federal Register / Vol. 68 , No. 3 / Monday, January 6, 2003 / 
Notices  

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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA Nos. 84.305G, 84.305H, 84.305J, 84.305K, 84.305L, 84.305M, and 
84.305W]


Institute of Education Sciences; Notice Inviting Applications for 
Grants To Support Education Research for Fiscal Year (FY) 2003

SUMMARY: The Director of the Institute of Education Sciences 
(Institute) announces seven FY 2003 competitions for grants to support 
educational research. The Director takes this action under the 
Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (Act), Title I of Public Law 107-
279. The intent of these grants is to provide national leadership in 
expanding fundamental knowledge and understanding of education from 
early childhood education through postsecondary study.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Mission of Institute: A central purpose of 
the Institute is to provide parents, educators, students, researchers, 
policymakers, and the general public with reliable information about 
educational practices that support learning and improve academic 
achievement and access to educational opportunities for all students. 
In carrying out its mission, the Institute provides support for 
programs of research in areas of demonstrated national need.
    Competitions in this notice: The following are the seven 
competitions in this notice for grants to support educational research 
in FY 2003:
    [sbull] Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research
    [sbull] Interagency Education Research, in partnership with the 
National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health
    [sbull] Cognition and Student Learning Research
    [sbull] Reading Comprehension Research
    [sbull] Teacher Quality Research
    [sbull] Effective Mathematics Education Research
    [sbull] Social and Character Development Research
    Organization of Notice: This notice is organized in a way to be 
helpful to a potential applicant. The notice provides information on 
eligibility; application availability; data--such as key dates, length 
of project period, and program contacts--for each competition; 
indication of intent to apply; and application procedures.
    Eligible Applicants: Applicants that have the ability and capacity 
to conduct scientifically valid research are eligible to apply. 
Eligible applicants include, but are not limited to, non-profit and 
for-profit organizations and public and private agencies and 
institutions, such as colleges and universities.
    Request for Applications and Other Information: Information 
regarding program and application requirements for each of the 
competitions is contained in the applicable Request for Applications 
package (RFA), which will be available at the following Web site: 
http://www.ed.gov/offices/IES/funding.html.
    The RFAs will be available--
    (1) On or before January 6, 2003 for Preschool Curriculum 
Evaluation Research, Reading Comprehension Research, Cognition and 
Student Learning Research, and Interagency Education Research;
    (2) On or before January 15, 2003 for Effective Mathematics 
Education Research, and Social and Character Development Research; and
    (3) On or before February 14, 2003 for Teacher Quality.
    Interested potential applicants should check the Web site 
periodically.
    Information regarding selection criteria and review procedures will 
also be posted at this Web site.

                                             Key Dates and Contacts
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                    Due date for       Deadline for
   CFDA number and program of     optional letter       receipt of       Project period         For further
            research                 of intent         applications                         information contact
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
84.305J Preschool Curriculum     Jan. 24, 2003....  Mar. 14, 2003....  Up to 48 months..  Caroline Ebanks
 Evaluation Research.                                                                     Email:
                                                                                           [email protected]
84.305W Interagency Education    Jan. 24, 2003....  Mar. 14, 2003....  Up to 60 months..  Mark Constas
 Research.                                                                                Email:
                                                                                           [email protected]
84.305H Cognition and Student    Jan. 29, 2003....  Mar. 21, 2003....  Up to 36 months..  Elizabeth Albro
 Learning Research.                                                                       Email:
                                                                                           [email protected]
84.305G Reading Comprehension    Jan. 30, 2003....  Mar. 21, 2003....  Up to 36 months..  Elizabeth Albro
 Research.                                                                                Email:
                                                                                           [email protected]
84.305M Teacher Quality          Mar. 26, 2003....  Apr. 18, 2003....  Up to 36 months..  Harold Himmelfarb
 Research.                                                                                Email:
                                                                                           [email protected]
84.305K Effective Mathematics    Mar. 6, 2003.....  Apr. 18, 2003....  Up to 48 months..  Heidi Schweingruber
 Education Research.                                                                      Email:
                                                                                           [email protected]
84.305L Social and Character     Mar. 6, 2003.....  Apr. 25, 2003....  Up to 48 months..  Tamara Haegerich
 Development Research.                                                                    Email:
                                                                                           [email protected]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Fiscal Information: Although a final appropriation for FY 2003 has 
not been enacted, the Institute is inviting applications now, in 
accordance with the schedule in the preceding chart, so that it may be 
prepared to make awards following final action by Congress on the 
Department's appropriation bill. The President's Budget for the 
Institute for FY 2003 includes sufficient funding for all of the 
competitions included in this notice. The actual award of grants is 
pending the availability of funds.
    Applicable Regulations: The Education Department General 
Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in 34 CFR parts 74, 77, 80, 81, 82, 
85, 86 (part 86 applies only to Institutions of Higher Education), 97, 
98, and 99. In addition 34 CFR part 75 is applicable, except for the 
provisions in 34 CFR 75.102, 75.103, 75.105, 75.109(a), 75.200, 75.201, 
75.209, 75.210, 75.217, 75.219 (except that the Department may select 
an application for funding without following the applicable procedures 
if the application was evaluated under the preceding competition of the 
program; the application rated high enough to deserve selection; and 
the application was not selected for funding because the application 
was mishandled by the Department), 75.220 and 75.230.

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    Letter of Intent: A letter indicating a potential applicant's 
intent to submit an application is optional, but encouraged, for each 
application. The letter of intent should be submitted by e-mail by the 
date listed in the chart included in this notice to the following 
address: [email protected]. Receipt of the letter of intent will be 
acknowledged by e-mail.
    The letter of intent should not exceed one page in length and 
should include: (1) A descriptive title and brief description of the 
research project; (2) the name, institutional affiliation, address, 
telephone number and e-mail address of the principal investigator(s); 
and (3) the name and institutional affiliation of any key 
collaborators.
    The letter of intent should also: (1) Indicate the duration of the 
proposed project; (2) provide an estimated budget request by year and a 
total budget request; and (3) indicate in the e-mail subject line the 
RFA number and title of the relevant program of research as indicated 
at the following Web site: http://www.ed.gov/offices/IES/funding.html.
    The letter of intent is optional and is not binding on applicants. 
Moreover, it does not enter into or affect the subsequent review of 
applications. The information in the optional letter of intent will 
help Institute staff estimate the potential workload involved in 
planning the review of applications.

Application Procedures

    The Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA) of 1998, (Pub. L. 
105-277) and the Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement 
Act of 1999, (Pub. L. 106-107) encourage us to undertake initiatives to 
improve our grant processes. Enhancing the ability of individuals and 
entities to conduct business with us electronically is a major part of 
our response to these Acts. Therefore, we are taking steps to adopt the 
Internet as our chief means of conducting transactions in order to 
improve services to our customers and to simplify and expedite our 
business processes.
    We are requiring that applications to the FY 2003 competitions be 
submitted electronically to the following Web site: http://ies.asciences.com. Information on the software to be used in submitting 
applications is available at the same Web site.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: The contact person associated with a 
particular program of research is listed in the chart included in this 
notice.
    If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may 
call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339.
    Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an 
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer 
diskette) on request to the program contact person listed in the chart 
included in this notice.
    Individuals with disabilities may obtain a copy of the application 
package in an alternative format by contacting the program contact 
person. However, the Department is not able to reproduce in an 
alternative format the standard forms included in the application 
package.

Electronic Access to This Document

    You may view this document, as well as all other Department of 
Education documents published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe 
Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Internet at the following site: 
http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister.
    To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available 
free at this site. If you have questions about using PDF, call the U.S. 
Government Printing Office (GPO), toll free, at 1-888-293-6498; or in 
the Washington, DC area at (202) 512-1530.

    Note: The official version of this document is the document 
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the 
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal 
Regulations is available on GPO Access at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/index.html.


    Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 9501 et seq. (the ``Education 
Sciences Reform Act of 2002'', Title 1 of Public Law 107-279, 
November 5, 2002).

    Dated: December 30, 2002.
Grover J. Whitehurst,
Director, Institute of Education Sciences.
[FR Doc. 03-160 Filed 1-3-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P