Race Scholars, Educators Sought for NSF NRT Proposal

Vice Chancellor for Research Alice Clark, Graduate Dean John Kiss, Assistant to the Chancellor for Multicultural Affairs Don Cole, and other University leaders are evaluating the feasibility of developing a race-relations-themed proposal to the NSF Research Trainee Program (due date: June 24, 2014).

The NSF Research Traineeship program is designed to encourage the development of bold, new, potentially transformative, and scalable models for STEM graduate training that ensure that graduate students develop the skills, knowledge, and competencies needed to pursue a range of STEM careers. NRT projects should develop evidence-based, sustainable approaches and practices that substantially improve STEM graduate education for NRT trainees and for STEM graduate students broadly at an institution. NRT emphasizes the development of competencies for both research and education.

Interest/Capability/Ideas Statements for consideration in the development of this proposal are invited. Please e-mail these to Jason Hale (jghale@olemiss.edu) by or before Monday, April 28, 2014. At a minimum, please let us know if you are interested in being part of the discussion. Ideally, send a 1-2 page statement listing any:

·      Research Capabilities on race
·      Instructional/Educational Capabilities (including existing courses) on race
·      Outreach Capabilities
·      Other Relevant Information
·      Any ideas about how we might address one or more of the following questions:

1.     Within the interdisciplinary theme of race relations, what high-national-priority disciplines should be included?
2.     What skills and knowledge related to race should we instill in our graduates?
3.     What transformative and scalable training model(s) should we develop and test?
4.     What will be the criteria for selecting NRT trainees?
5.     Within the race theme, what activities should we implement and require of the Trainees? And how should we make these activities available to other STEM graduate students?
6.     Which evidence-based strategies should we employ to broaden participation of students from diverse backgrounds (including women, African Americans, persons with disabilities, etc.)?
7.     How should we assess outcomes, and disseminate successful models nationally?

NSF NRT Webinars:

  • Tuesday, April 29, 1pm - 2pm CST
  • Wednesday, April 30, 1pm - 2pm CST

Full Solicitation: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/nsf14548/nsf14548.htm