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State Academies play an important role sponsoring and organizing activities that create opportunities for middle and high school students to conduct and share their research. These activities include annual science festivals, journals for the publication of findings, and professional development activities for teachers. AAAS supports this work through a research grant competition that provides funds to support the efforts of the academies to promote student research.
AAAS awards funds to NAAS-affiliated Academies of Science for programs to stimulate and improve research in the sciences by middle and secondary school students. The AAAS distributes the funds based on proposals from academies to the AAAS. The AAAS funds may be used to support and encourage student research in all fields of science.
Historically the endowment funding the program yields less than $10,000 for these awards. Under the terms of the bequests to AAAS from which the funds derive, the AAAS grants may be used only for research or activities that support and encourage research at the precollege level. The grants cannot be used for purchase of major equipment, for indirect costs (overhead), travel, living expenses, or similar purposes.
The intent of the awards is to support as many students as possible with these very limited funds, so proposals to support several students at very modest levels will be most competitive. Evidence of successful fund-raising activities and/or commitment of Academy funds to support the proposed program will also be a positive factor in this competitive atmosphere.
The deadline for submission is the first Friday of December with awards made at the NAAS/AJAS Annual Meeting in February.