SMIF IS Your Partner in Meaningful Outreach
Competitive grant proposals often require meaningful outreach, and a link between the proposed research and the outreach increases the competitiveness of the proposal.
Innovative outreach programs can be difficult for individual faculty and groups of faculty to generate, yet significant broader impacts are a critical aspect of successful proposal funding.
What We Can Do For You
SMIF has leveraged NSF support to create a series of field-tested outreach programs that can:
- Seamlessly customize and integrate into your proposal
- Show a direct link between your proposed research and the outreach content
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SMIF provides all the training and equipment.
We look forward to helping you bring your research to a wide audience!
Why Work With Us?
Connections
- We have a network of educators both in K-12 schools, and afterschool and summer camp settings—and connections to libraries, community centers, and community colleges
- Through our network, we reach students from a wide range of backgrounds, particularly underrepresented groups in STEM
- Our lesson plans meet North Carolina K-12 science standards—making it easier to get into the classroom
Experience
- In the 2017-2018 fiscal year, we hosted more than 700 outreach visitors, ranging from a science camp for middle school girls using the scanning electron microscope to local public school teachers learning about science opportunities in SMIF for their classes
- About 50% of the groups that visited SMIF specifically served underrepresented groups in STEM
Assessment
- We keep detailed records on student visits, facilitating reporting to funding agencies
- We build rigorous assessments of outreach interactions
How Does It Work?
- We help you with proposal development—for proposals large and small
- Choose one of our field-tested outreach programs
- We work with you to customize outreach to reflect the specific research in your proposal
- We provide training for all participants (students and faculty), and all the equipment
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Outreach Activity Examples
Fee Schedule
Prior to October 2020
- Volunteering/working with existing SMIF outreach programs is free
- SMIF fees for equipment usage and staff time are partially funded by the NSF RTNN through October 2020
- Help writing customized outreach plans for proposals is free
- If the proposal is funded, cost for customized outreach program is 2% of proposal direct costs
Beyond October 2020
- Help writing customized outreach plans for proposals is free
- If the proposal is funded, cost for customized outreach program is 4% of proposal direct costs
Contact
Email Holly Leddy at holly.leddy@duke.edu