Slots: Alliances Programs: 1 slot total
Regional Foundational and Forward-Thinking Educational Research Conferences: 1 slot total
Deadlines
Internal Deadline: November 4, 2022, 5pm PT
External Deadline:
Community Resource Centers: January 9, 2023
LSAMP National Coordination Hub: January 9, 2023
Recurring Community Resource Centers Deadline: June 1, 2023
Award Information
Award Type: Cooperative Agreement or Continuing Grant
LSAMP National Coordination Hub: One (1) new project with total budget up to $5 million (maximum $1.0M per year) for up to 5 years. The award will be made as a Cooperative Agreement.
Louis Stokes Community Resource Centers: Three to five (3-5) new projects with total budgets up to $3.5M each (maximum $700,000 per year) for 3 to 5 years. These awards will be made as Continuing Grants.
Link to Award: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2022/nsf22584/nsf22584.htm
Who May Serve as PI: The Principal Investigator (PI) for Alliances (including Bridge to the Baccalaureate) should be the President, Chancellor, or Provost of the lead institution and member of the alliance governing board. For STEM Pathways and Research Alliances (also an Alliances program) one or more of the Co-PIs must be a social or data scientist, disciplinary/interdisciplinary education researcher or evaluator.
Process for Limited Submissions
PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Office of Research Application Portal: https://orif.usc.edu/oor-portal/.
Materials to submit include:
(1) Single Page Proposal Summary (0.5” margins; single-spaced; font type: Arial, Helvetica, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 1-page limit will be excluded from review. Please note which type of LSAMP proposal you are submitting.
(2) CV – (5 pages maximum)
Purpose
With this solicitation, the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program is requesting proposals for an LSAMP National Coordination Hub (LSAMP Hub) and for Louis Stokes Community Resource Centers (LSCRCs). These new activities will complement and amplify the work of the existing program activities as well as support wider dissemination of the results of LSAMP activities. The LSCRCs and the LSAMP Hub will also support the program in further development of partnerships both across the LSAMP community and with other national efforts. This new solicitation will support LSAMP community-focused activities in contrast to the longstanding LSAMP program solicitation (see the LSAMP Program webpage) which provides for student-focused activities.
Since 1991, the LSAMP program has been investing in the nation’s colleges and universities to aid student success, directly or indirectly, creating a new generation of STEM discoverers for the National STEM enterprise. The overall goal of the program is to support the diversification of the nation’s STEM workforce by funding institutions of higher education, working together as alliances, to implement comprehensive, evidence-based, and sustained approaches to broadening the participation in STEM for individuals from underrepresented populations in STEM: Blacks and African Americans, Alaska Natives, American Indians, Hispanic and Latino Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Native Pacific Islanders (these populations will be referred to here as LSAMP populations). The LSAMP program focuses on students at the undergraduate (including community college) and post-baccalaureate levels. It supports knowledge generation, knowledge utilization, assessment of program impacts, and dissemination activities for broadening participation in STEM education, facilitating the successful production of highly capable and diverse STEM talent. LSAMP’s efforts to increase diversity in STEM remain aligned with the goals of the National Science Board’s Vision 2030 report.
The LSAMP program currently has over 600 organizations participating in 57 active alliances, nine Research Centers of Excellence and other STEM education projects. The Urban Institute’s evaluation of the program1 determined that it had been successful in “increasing the quality and quantity of students who successfully complete LSAMP-supported STEM baccalaureate programs.” The success of program activities is also demonstrated in a recent special edition publication on broadening participation in STEM2. LSAMP alliances have consistently contributed to a robust number of STEM baccalaureate degrees per year amongst LSAMP populations.
To increase program impact, since 2017 the LSAMP program has funded nine Louis Stokes Regional Centers of Excellence in Broadening Participation (LSRCEs) to serve as regional testbeds for outreach, knowledge-diffusion activities, or other practices that contribute to successful outcomes in STEM education. The nine LSRCEs serve as regional exemplar sites in innovative STEM learning and research collaboration, and also interface and leverage resources to advance STEM education and broadening participation, particularly for students underrepresented in STEM disciplines. Beneficial outcomes of the existing centers include: (1) regional repositories for LSAMP best practices at the undergraduate and graduate levels, (2) regional centers for broadening participation research including outcomes of international research opportunities for students, leadership, and nanotechnology, and (3) coordination with the NSF INCLUDES national network.
Given the large number of alliances and organizations that have come to participate in LSAMP activities, there is a need for more community development in addition to the student-focused activities of the alliances. With the LSAMP Hub and LSCRCs supported in this new solicitation, NSF seeks to:
- Increase opportunities in support of developing a diverse STEM workforce.
- Increase opportunities that pertain to national priorities and to NSF’s high priority research areas.
- Support the development and efficacy of LSAMP alliances.
- Strengthen connections and provide resources to the LSAMP community.
- Support partnerships among both LSAMP and non-LSAMP organizations.
The LSAMP Hub will promote intentional coordination, stronger collaborations, and build community among the broader LSAMP community as well as provide a bridge between alliance and non-alliance organizations. The LSAMP Hub will coordinate all LSAMP activities, including those of alliances, existing LSCREs, and the new LSCRCs. The coordination activities of the Hub, along with the research activities of the new LSCRCs, will complement and amplify the work of the existing alliances and assist in wider dissemination of knowledge production from LSAMP activities. In contrast to the current regionally focused LSRCEs, LSCRCs may reach out across the entire LSAMP community. The LSCRCs will accelerate the pace of knowledge generation and research dissemination in the areas of broadening participation, STEM education for LSAMP populations, and preparation for national STEM priorities. In addition, the LSCRCs will support a community of researchers and facilitate scholarly opportunities that will further advance the overall goal of the LSAMP program to diversify the nation’s STEM workforce. Each LSCRC will focus on a topic or theme that will advance knowledge for preparing students from LSAMP populations for 21st century careers, with a focus on meeting national priorities and preparation for emerging sciences (e.g. artificial intelligence, data science, climate change, cybersecurity). Unlike the alliances, the Hub and the LSCRCs will not directly develop and implement institutional programs to increase the number of persons from LSAMP populations earning baccalaureate degrees in STEM; instead they will serve as resources to LSAMP projects in achieving program goals.
The LSAMP Hub and new LSCRCs will increase the LSAMP program’s ability to support NSF’s overall strategy to develop a globally engaged workforce necessary to ensure the Nation’s leadership in advancing science and engineering research and innovation. The coordination activities of the LSAMP Hub and the research activities of the LSCRCs will provide increased opportunities for LSAMP populations in research and education. Thus, the LSAMP Hub and the new LSCRCs will support, and expand the ability of the LSAMP program in the preparation of LSAMP populations for high priority research areas in alignment with NSF goals and priorities included in the NSF Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years (FY) 2022 – 2026, Leading the World in Discovery and Innovation, STEM Talent Development and the Delivery of Benefits from Research, the National Science Board’s Vision 2030 with its emphasis on the importance of finding the missing millions to reduce the significant talent gap in the Nation’s workforce, and the Federal Government’s five-year strategic plan for STEM education, Charting a Course for Success: America’s Strategy for STEM Education.
Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.