Grants Alert

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/fgc.30050
• Published date: 19 November 2015
• Date: 19 November 2015

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DOL rule to diversify

apprenticeship programs

The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL’s)

Employment and Training Administration has

announced a proposed rule to update existing

Equal Employment Opportunity regulations

for Registered Apprenticeship programs. The

department said in a release the proposed rule

would serve to ensure equal opportunity for all

Americans to take part in these apprenticeship

programs regardless of race, sex, color, national

origin, disability, age, genetic information or sexual

orientation.

Modernizing and streamlining the rules

will make it easier for employers and program

sponsors to effectively grow and diversify their

apprenticeship programs, DOL said, as well

as strengthen afrmative action provisions by

clarifying the mandatory actions a sponsor must

take to meet its afrmative action requirements.

According to the DOL, the proposed rule would

improve existing regulations by:

• Extending protections against discrimination

to include a broader swath of America’s workforce,

including protections based on disability, age (40 or

older), sexual orientation and genetic information;

• Simplifying and clarifying the afrmative

steps employers and sponsors must take to ensure

equal opportunity in apprenticeship;

• Providing new apprenticeship programs with

more time to develop initial afrmative action

programs, as well as providing all apprenticeship

programs that meet their responsibilities under

the rule with additional exibility in how often

they must update their plans; and

• Simplifying and clearly dening the process

for analyzing the talent available in the labor

market to establish clear and achievable goals for

diversity in apprenticeship.

Public comments will be accepted on the

proposed rule until Jan. 5, 2016, DOL said, which

may be submitted electronically at http://www.

regulations.gov. Learn more at http://www.doleta.

gov/oa/eeo. ■

Grants alert

Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellows Summer

Institute (DOS)

Scope: The State Department’s Bureau of Educational

and Cultural Affairs (ECA) seeks applications for the

FY2016 Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellows Summer

Institute to provide a three-to-four-week U.S.-based

institute in the summer of 2016.

Deadline: Dec. 28, 2015.

Funds: In FY2016, $250,000 total for one cooperative

agreement.

Eligibility: Nonprofit organizations.

Areas: ECA said the institute will engage 55 teenagers

(ages 16–18) from Europe and the United States, focusing

on transatlantic relations, leadership development, critical

thinking, diplomacy, community activism and the media as

ways that young adults can unite around their common goals.

➜ www.grants.gov; FON# ECA-ECAPEC-16-014

Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs: Establishing

Spokes to Advance Big Data Applications (NSF)

Scope: The National Science Foundation seeks

applications for Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs:

Establishing Spokes to Advance Big Data Applications

(BD Spokes) to extend the current BD hubs network by

establishing multi-institutional and multisector collaborations

focused on topics of specific interest to a given region to

build upon that region’s capabilities and strengths.

Deadline: Letters of Intent, Jan. 12, 2016; proposals, Feb.

25, 2016.

Funds: $10 million total for up to 19 awards. Each BD

Spoke will be funded up to a maximum of $1 million total for

up to three years subject to the availability of funds. Each

planning grant will be funded up to a maximum of $100,000

total for up to one year subject to the availability of funds.

Eligibility: Colleges and universities, nonprofit

organizations and state and local governments.

Areas: NSF said Big Data activities will be guided by

Vol. 39, No. 24 November 19, 2015

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