FOA-Creating Equitable Pathways to STEM Graduate Education; June 1, 2021 (LOI)

 

Agency

Sloan Foundation

 

Description:

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is accepting letters of intent for the Creating Equitable Pathways to STEM Graduate Education. Projects should be initiated by Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and collaborations between the graduate institutions and MSIs are highly encouraged. Existing partnerships between the University of Kentucky and MSIs should consider applying. Please note that MSIs should be the lead institutional partner and are limited to one submission per institution. Multiple applications with UK as the partnering institution are acceptable as long as they come from different MSIs.

 

The grant supports projects that seek to dismantle systemic barriers and create sustainable pathways to graduate STEM education for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students. Compelling LOIs will result in the invitation of a full proposal. The Foundation’s Equity-Minded Pathways to STEM Graduate Education program will support institutional pathways from Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) to master’s and doctoral degree programs in astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer science, data science, Earth sciences, economics, engineering, marine science, mathematics, physics, and statistics. The intent is to create and strengthen diverse, inclusive, and equitable pathways to and through STEM graduate education with the recognition that student pathways are too often disrupted by systemic racism, discrimination, and bias through prevailing institutional and departmental policy and practice.

 

Proposed projects may take multiple forms, for example, planning activities on MSI campuses that set the stage for new pathways between MSIs and graduate programs at other MSIs or at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs); projects that establish mutually beneficial partnerships between undergraduate and graduate programs at two or more institutions, at least one of which must be a MSI; and reform of graduate recruitment efforts, admission policies and processes, mentoring practices, and other gatekeeping (or gateway) structures within STEM graduate programs that open doors for students from MSIs.

 

Three types of grants will be funded:

·        Planning grants to support two or more institutions to conduct internal reviews of existing barriers to student success and for analysis and planning for future systemic change partnerships/collaborations;

·        Seed grants to support work at two or more institutions that seek to formalize existing systemic change partnerships/collaborations and launch a small set of pilot initiatives; and

·        Implementation grants to support work at two or more institutions that allow for the creation, augmentation or scaling of significant formal systemic change partnerships/collaborations.

 

Closing Date: 

June 1, 2021 (LOIs); September 1, 2021 (Full Application)

 

Link to Full Announcement:

https://sloan.org/programs/higher-education/diversity-equity-inclusion/equitable-pathways-loi

 

Contact Information:

dei@sloan.org

Subject Heading should be “STEM Pathways”