Collaborating with two-year colleges to build capacity in their STEM workforce endeavors and to empower them to pursue funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program.

WHO WE ARE

Project Vision is a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded initiative to help colleges discover and match innovative ideas with NSF funding opportunities led by a seasoned team of NSF ATE experts, former senior college administrators, and former NSF program officers.

MISSION AND GOALS

The goal of Project Vision is to provide two-year colleges with expertise to generate ideas and subsequently support capacity building at each college so that these colleges can regularly submit proposals when appropriate to DUE.

HOW TO APPLY

Colleges who are interested should complete an application online. 

Cohorts of 10 are selected each July for services the following year.

Why Apply?

Since 1993 the NSF ATE program has provided support to advance STEM workforce education in the form of almost 2,000 grants to nearly 500 of the nation’s two-year colleges, located in all 50 states, DC, Puerto Rico and Guam. From the National Science Board to the halls of Congress, the ATE program has been proclaimed an exemplar to support the education of well-qualified talent for the STEM workforce in America.

To learn more about the influence the NSF ATE program has had, download the ATE Impacts 2020-2021.

Expertise

We provide two-year diverse, small, rural colleges and/or colleges with newer Presidents the expertise to generate innovative ideas that produce award-worthy NSF proposals.

Support

We offer support at all levels of a college ecosystem including Board of Trustees (BOT), President, and faculty.

Professional Development

We provide professional development activities for BOT, Presidents, Administrators, Faculty, and Staff by socializing these entities to the NSF ATE Program and other Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) programs.

Growth

We provide each college the support needed to build up their capacity to regularly submit proposals to the NSF ATE Program and other DUE Programs.

Events

Event
Date & Time

PV Webinar #2 – Making a Case for Support: The NSF Merit Review Criteria

PV Open Office Hours for Cohort 2

PV Webinar #3 – Institutional Infrastructure and Key Personnel Roles; Required Forms and Docs

FAQs

Project Vision seeks to support and collaborate with two-year colleges that have: (1) never received NSF ATE funding or none within the past seven years or (2) have had limited prior NSF ATE support in more recent history but are currently challenged to generate momentum to initiate new STEM workforce endeavors that align with the mission of the ATE program. Furthermore, Project Vision is particularly interested to work with small, rural colleges and colleges with relatively new presidents.

The application can be found here. In addition to this short application, a letter of support is needed from the President of the interested college. The application for the following year cohort is due July 1st for services the following calendar year.

Each year, a cohort of 10 colleges will be selected and notified by July 15th for services the following year.

In addition to helping colleges discover and match innovative ideas with NSF funding opportunities, each mentee college will be provided with a mentor team, a $6,000 stipend, introductions through Project Vision’s large network, and access to the NSF ATE Principal Investigators (PI) conference.

No. In fact it is quite the opposite, each mentee college is provided a $6,000 stipend once certain milestones are reached to support faculty involvement and momentum on the project.

If selected, each college will be guided through a pre-visit packet and assessment designed to optimize the visit.

2-3 days with tailored meetings designed around the analysis of the pre-visit packet. Typical visits include interviews with all members of the college ecosystem and tours of facilities.

Interested in partnering with Project Vision
to become a mentored college?

Applications will be accepted until July 31, 2024 to be selected for the 2024 college cohort.