NSF INCLUDES Planning Grant: An NSF CREST Centers Collaboration to Advance Minority Undergraduate Student Researchers in STEM

美国STEM劳动力的增长对经济和全球竞争力至关重要。 为了增加劳动力，需要在社会各部门中培养STEM人才。该规划补助金项目是建立在国家科学基金会科学技术卓越研究中心（CREST）的现有优势和网络基础上的，其领导团队由来自四个少数民族服务机构的专家组成：加州州立大学，洛杉矶;新墨西哥州大学;波多黎各大学-马亚圭斯校区;纽约城市学院，纽约城市大学。 该项目的目标是建立一个框架，基于五个NSF INCLUDES设计元素，创建所需的能力：（1）为CREST中心和其他高等教育机构提供支持，以开发强大的本科生研究计划和一个研究准备不足的少数民族本科生池;（2）与合作组织合作，扩大在会议和活动中展示其资产的机会，重点关注STEM中历史上代表性不足的少数民族学生;（3）加强合作者之间的沟通渠道，分享奖学金，实习，暑期研究计划，研讨会和研究会议等机会;（4）在合作大学之间制定途径协议，以增加和改善学生进入博士和博士后课程的机会。 这项计划资助的成果预计将为未来的联盟、中心或网络奠定基础，以解决已确定的在全国范围内扩大STEM参与的挑战。计划资助领导团队将与来自加州州立大学贝克斯菲尔德分校、德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校、加州大学默塞德分校、Prairie View A M大学和圣贝纳迪诺加州州立大学的代表组成一个指导委员会。领导团队和指导委员会将与高等教育机构，其他CREST中心获奖者，专业协会，国家实验室和NSF HBCU科学与工程研究基础设施（HBCU-RISE）获奖者的广泛群体一起举办研讨会。 研讨会将为合作组织提供一个论坛，以建立协作基础设施：制定共同愿景;扩大合作伙伴关系，纳入广泛的组织和机构社区;建立共同的目标和指标;巩固领导结构;并建立和改善合作伙伴之间的沟通。该NSF INCLUDES规划赠款由NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities资助工程和科学项目中代表性不足的发现者的学习者（NSF INCLUDES），这是一项全面的国家倡议，旨在通过关注多样性，包容性和扩大对STEM的参与来加强美国在发现和创新方面的领导地位。 该计划拨款也是由美国国家科学基金会的卓越研究中心在科学和技术计划（CREST）; CREST计划为提高少数民族服务机构的研究能力提供支持通过建立有效整合STEM教育和研究的中心。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

The growth of the United States STEM workforce is important to economic and global competitiveness. Developing STEM talent among all sectors of society is needed in order to grow the workforce. This planning grant project is building on the established strengths and network of the NSF Centers for Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) with a leadership team of experts from four minority-serving institutions: The California State University, Los Angeles; the University of New Mexico; the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez Campus; and the City College of New York, the City University of New York. The project goal is to build a framework, based on the five NSF INCLUDES design elements, that create the capacity required to: (1) Provide support to CREST Centers and other institutions of higher education to develop robust undergraduate research programs and a pool of research-ready underrepresented minority undergraduate students; (2) Engage partnering organizations to expand opportunities to showcase their assets in conference and events that focus on historically underrepresented minority students in STEM; (3) Enhance channels of communication across collaborators, to share opportunities such as scholarships, internships, summer research programs, workshops, and research conferences; and (4) Develop pathway agreements between partnering universities to increase and improve the opportunities for students to go into doctoral and post-doctoral programs. The outcomes of this planning grant are expected to lay the foundation for a future alliance, center or network to address the identified broadening participation challenge in STEM at a national scale.The planning grant leadership team will engage a steering committee with representatives from the California State University, Bakersfield; the University of Texas at San Antonio; University of California, Merced; Prairie View A&M University; and California State University, San Bernardino. Together, the leadership team and steering committee will conduct workshops with a broad group of institutions of higher education, other CREST Center awardees, professional societies, national laboratories and NSF HBCU Research Infrastructure for Science and Engineering (HBCU-RISE) awardees. The workshops will provide a forum for partnering organizations to build a collaborative infrastructure: To develop a shared vision; to expand the partnerships to include a broad community of organizations and institutions; to establish shared goals and metrics; to solidify the leadership structure; and to establish and improve communication across the partners.This NSF INCLUDES planning grant is funded by the NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science program (NSF INCLUDES), a comprehensive national initiative to enhance U.S. leadership in discoveries and innovations by focusing on diversity, inclusion and broadening participation in STEM at scale. The planning grant is also funded by the NSF’s Centers for Research Excellence in Science and Technology program (CREST); and the CREST program provides support to enhance the research capabilities of minority-serving institutions (MSIs) through the establishment of centers that effectively integrate STEM education and research.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.