A Workshop for Broadening Participation in the Economics Profession: Proposal Writing and Grants Management

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract: A Workshop for Broadening Participation in the Economics Profession: Proposal Writing and Grant Management African Americans are under-represented in the Economics profession relative to their population share in the U.S. The participation rate of researchers from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in NSF funded research activities in economics is even much lower than African American representation in the Economics profession. In an era of increasing diversity of the U.S. workforce, broadening participation in STEM research has become a necessity. Part of this low participation rate can be attributed to lack of supply of quality proposals from HBCU researchers. This proposed Workshop aims to bring researchers from HBCUs, NSF Program Directors, HBCU Administrators and NSF Awardees together to develop approaches to increase quality submission of grant applications from HBCUs. The Workshop will provide a "hands on" experience in writing competitive research grant applications and managing awards should one win award. Expected outcomes of this Workshop include increased number of competitive proposals submitted to NSF from HBCUs, increased collaboration among HBCU researchers and among HBC and non-HBCU researchers, increased publications in refereed journals by HBCU economics faculty, and ultimately a strong research infrastructure and culture in HBCUs. Key aspects of the Workshop is the long term mentoring that will be provided for new researchers, as well as the collaboration across researchers that will develop. Involving HBCU Administrators will let them realize how time consuming research is and therefore convince them provide time release for their faculty to be able write competitive proposals. The results of this Workshop will contribute to the development of a strong and diverse STEM scientific community in the U.S. About 20 research-active HBCU economists from the Southeastern U.S., NSF grant awardees, NSF Program Directors from the Social Behavioral and Economics Directorate (SBE), and HBCU Administrators will be invited to this Workshop. Prior NSF awardee will be assigned as mentors to the HBCU faculty and NSF Program Officers will act as resource persons at the Workshop. The focus of the Workshop will be on the practical aspects of grant writing and grant management. The key to success of this workshop is the requirement that each participant comes in with a draft outline of a research project which s/he will work to refine at the workshop and continue to work on refining with his/her mentor after the Workshop and ultimately submit to the NSF for funding. If successful, the efforts can be replicated not only in other regions but also in other disciplines with current mentees acting as mentors in future efforts. To gauge the success of the Workshop, the PIs will collect data on the research productivity of participants before and after participation. For effective evaluation, the PIs will also collect information on a control group in order to be able evaluate the effectiveness or otherwise of the Workshop. This Workshop will contribute to the development of a strong and diverse Economics profession in the U.S., thus contributing the U.S.' leadership in economic science.