THE GLOBAL CHALLENGE

Overview Information Proposal Template

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STEM4Girls is a non-profit corporation operating exclusively for charitable, educational, and scientific purposes within the meaning of Section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or the corresponding section of any future Federal tax code. The purpose of STEM4Girls is to encourage the pursuit of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math – collectively termed STEM fields. STEM4Sustainability aims to bridge the gap between students and the resources they need to develop innovative solutions for a more sustainable future. By bringing together passionate students to drive meaningful environmental and social change, STEM4 Sustainability is committed to addressing global challenges with creativity and purpose. STEM4Girls aims to instill a love for STEM in girls across the globe wherever women are vastly under-represented in STEM fields. STEM4Girls encourages girls to establish active collaboration among the peer groups, improving their outlook towards STEM and to contribute to science. Additionally, STEM4Girls works to bring knowledge with fun, educational workshops and camps available to garner the interest of young minds to mold them throughout their lives. We place particular emphasis on the encouragement and involvement of girls and other underrepresented groups in STEM fields.

Funding Opportunity Title: STEM for Sustainability (alternatively “STEM4Sustainability”) 2025-2026 .

STEM4Girls is honored and excited to announce a grant opportunity for students interested in STEM projects; Science Technology, Engineering, and Math. In order to promote creativity in the STEM field, STEM4Girls will be assisting students with up to $250 to work on a unique STEM-based project that follows the guidelines listed below. These grants are available for students that identify as female, or with at least one student identifying as female within the team. Three categories including elementary, middle-school and high/secondary schools are eligible to participate. Each team can have 4-10 students with at least one female. The project proposals will be reviewed by the experts and 5 outstanding projects from each category will be funded for completing the proposed research. Students may also submit a report at the end of the challenge period to get more funding for their future projects. A potential grant of a maximum of $250 (depending on the impact of the project) will be given to the first-place entry selected from the outstanding proposals in each category. The selected projects will be given the opportunity to participate and to do presentations to the scientific community and students at the International Research Conference for Children (IRCC-2025).

Key Dates

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Posted Date - Feb 3st , 2025
Open Date (Earliest Submission Date) - Feb 10th, 2025
Application Due Date(s) - April 5th, 2025
Scientific Review finished - April 19th, 2025
Scientific Presentations - April-May, 2025
Announcement of selected projects in June 13-15 2025
Earliest Project Start Date - 1st August 2025
Project starting due date - August 15th, 2025
Project Completion Date - July 31st, 2026

Submission guidelines

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STEM4Girls is honored and excited to announce a grant opportunity for students interested in STEM projects; Science Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, and Math. In order to promote awareness about sustainability and the environment, STEM4Girls will be assisting students with up to $250 to work on a unique STEM based project to address the ongoing issues with the environment & sustainability . These grants are available for students that identify as female, or with at least one student identifying as female in the team. Three categories including elementary, middle-school and high/secondary schools are eligible to participate. Each team can have 4-10 students with at least one female. The project proposals will be reviewed by the experts and 5 outstanding projects from each category will be funded for completing the proposed research. Students may also submit a report at the end of the challenge period to get more funding for their future projects. A potential grant of a maximum of $250 (depending on the impact of the project) will be given to the first-place entry selected from the 5 outstanding proposals in each category.

Submission guidelines

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*The medium of application is English, and for the team whose mother tongue is not English are encouraged to consult language experts, interpreters, or translators. English language support will be provided upon request.
*Scientific writing support will also be provided upon request.
Eligibility criteria. For KG - HS students who identify as female or a group with at least one member identifying as female, these grants are eligible.
Team leaders and team members: Every team leader should have a registered stem4 account and the participants' names should be listed under every team.
Page Limitations: Arial 11, line space 2. A4 size 1” margins. Maximum 12 pages (Excluding bibliography)
Biographical Sketch (1-page max for each participant): Describe the appropriate experience, training, and skill set that each team member possesses to conduct innovative new research.
Itemized Budget (with justification) (Maximum 1 page): What is the budget for? Is there any alternative available? What is the cheapest option? How does each item help the study?
Research Plan (Maximum 5 pages): The overall research plan needs to be presented within the 5 page limit. Schematic diagrams, illustrations and flowcharts are highly encouraged where artistic abilities can be appreciated. Figures and tables should be well defined with proper titles and descriptions If and whenever required, the team can consult language experts for scientific writing; however, it needs to be disclosed.

Following subtitles are required

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1.Project Title
2.Team members: Name, address, school/organization, age
3.Abstract: less than 250 words
4.Research Strategy: Address the following factors as they pertain to the research project proposed:

a) Background: An overview of the scenario when led to the identification of a scientific question.

b) Hypothesis: Identify a hypothesis based on the background information. Hypothesis is an assumption or proposed explanation made on the basis of background information as a starting point for further investigation. Hypothesis can be a concept, prediction, or idea that you are planning to study through your research and experiments.
b) Specific Aims:Can have 2 or 3 specific aims to test your hypothesis. Each specific aim should be linked and be relevant to the overall project. Sub-aims can be included.
c) Significance:What is the hypothesis or problem that is going to be addressed? Why and how is testing the hypothesis/solving the important problem? Explain how a successful outcome has the potential to transform the current understanding of agricultural science. How does the proposal revolutionize the present scenario under investigation? What is the gap in the knowledge and how your study contributes to the advancement in the current knowledge.
d) Innovation:State clearly and concisely what makes your project unique and innovative?
e) Preliminary data: Include the preliminary data if available. The preliminary data must be from your own previous experiments.
f) Approach:Provide enough information so that reviewers can thoroughly understand your proposal. If your methodology is standard, what is novel and innovative in your approach? How does your system differ from traditional methods? Experimental replicates and statistical analysis are highly encouraged.
g) Strengths and weakness: Overall strength of the proposal with anticipated outcome needs to be highlighted. Point out the weakness of the study.
h) Alternate strategy: If the approach fails, what will you do to overcome the risk?
i) Timeline:Provide a timeline for the proposed research that does not overlap with the Study. A schematic representation will be appreciated.
j) Bibliography:Add proper citations and references if available.
5.* Did scientific writing involve language experts? Yes/no

Application Review Information

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The proposals will be examined and scored based on the following criteria.
1. Overall Impact:How will the proposal impact the current world? How is STEM involved in the study?
2. Significance: Does the project address an important problem to advance the field? Are the aims of the project viable? How will successful completion of the aims change the concepts, methods, technologies, and interventions that drive this field?
3. Innovation:Does the application seek novel theoretical concepts, approaches or methodologies, instrumentation, or interventions? How effectively the proposal addresses the persisting issues? How innovative and effective is the proposal?
4. Approach:Are the strategy, methodology, and approaches able to accomplish the specific aims? What are the plans to address the weaknesses of the proposed project? How effective is the approach in addressing the scientific question/aim?
5. Environment: How will the team work together to ensure all members have a role and progress is being made? Are the team members collaborating with others outside of the team?
6. Additional Review Criteria:Merit of the team members, Extracurricular skills, the overall outlook and design of the application based on schematic diagrams, illustrations, pictures and flowcharts.
7. Presentation:Selected applications will be invited to present their project for further screening
*Consulting language experts would support the reviewers to clearly understand the scientific content of the proposal, even though language is not a criteria for scoring.

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