Conference: A Proposal to Provide Technical Assistance to Increase the Research Competitiveness of MSIs, Community Colleges, and URM Faculty to BIO-wide Programs

Quality Education For Minorities Network, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

In order to build an inclusive STEM workforce, the United States must assist in building the research capacity at institutions and in geographical areas that produce the highest number of minorities in STEM, which includes MSIs and community colleges located within EPSCOR states. These institutions are important and effective incubators of STEM professionals. However, they face institutional challenges that can undermine best efforts to recruit, retain and prepare underrepresented students. This project will conduct a 3-day grantsmanship development workshop, with post-workshop assistance, to support 30 Minority-serving institution (MSI), community college (CC), and underrepresented bioscience faculty in order to nurture their proposal development skills. This proposal development assistance is necessary to cultivate a more informed and competitive submission of proposals to a broad range of programs within the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO). Faculty from local Atlanta, GA, EPSCOR states (LA, MS, AL) and southeastern regional MSIs and CCs interested in gaining knowledge about funding opportunities in selected NSF BIO programs, will be encouraged to participate. Priority will be given to those faculty that have not previously submitted to the BIO Directorate and those from EPSCOR States. This workshop will be designed to aid these faculty with knowledge necessary to compete for grant funding needed to support their research, teaching, and training of their underrepresented minority students. The project’s goals are to: (1) increase institutional awareness of competitive funding resources to build biology research training capacity of faculty serving at MSIs and CCs; (2) broaden participation of faculty at MSIs and CCs in biological science research; and (3) promote their collaborative grant-writing efforts. This project will assess the impact of the training and will track the submissions of proposals by the participants. This project is supported by the Division of Biological Infrastructure and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.