Transitioning NSDL
In mid-February 2011, the National Science Foundation confirmed that it will no longer continue to support the National STEM Distributed Learning funding program (as of September 30, 2011), within the Division of Undergraduate Education, Directorate for Education and Human Resources.
NSDL, however, continues to move forward. We are vastly appreciative of NSF's generous support over the past 10 years, and look forward to NSDL's next iteration. The NSDL Resource Center, NSDL Technical Network Services, Pathways, Services, Targeted Research, and small grant project PIs are engaging in community discussion of existing additional opportunities within and beyond NSF. NSDL has the opportunity to leverage its expertise as a distributed collaborative for digital library development, and technology-enabled delivery of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) resources, collections, tools and services.
You can follow and participate in these discussions via the Future Directions Forum: Transitioning NSDL. NSDL continues all normal operations: technological infrastructure and support, search, collections harvest, partnership activities, outreach, and professional development. Stay tuned to this discussion for updates as they develop....
FYI - here's some links to Office of Cyberinfrastructure info, and potential RFPs of interest:
- Dear Colleague Letter: Expanded Directions in Cyberinfrastructure
- Cyberinfrastructure: Transforming Education - NSF 10-620; Letter of Intent due date: May 14, 2011; Full proposal due date: July 14, 2011
- Math and Science Partnership program (DUE) - NSF 10-556 (2011 RFP not yet available)
Just to confirm: NSDL is not planning on hosting an annual meeting for the NSDL community (typically held in November), nor are we currently planning on a Pathways meeting (typically held in August). Instead, NSDL is providing modest support for an April Planning meeting, and for a May workshop on Learning Application Readiness (see April 6 post, this forum), as important elements to transition NSDL to a sustainable future.