ADVANCE: Increasing the Participation and Advancement of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Careers (ADVANCE)
Adaptation Letter of Intent due August 09, 2017
Adaptation full proposal due September 13, 2017
Non-profit, non-academic organizations are allowed to submit one Adaptation proposal in the competition
Past or current ADVANCE IT awardees are not eligible.
Focus on diversity among women faculty: The ADVANCE program is centrally focused on funding projects to support systemic change for gender equity in STEM academic careers. Barriers to gender equity may not be identical for all groups of women faculty in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, however. For example, African-American women, Hispanic/Latina women, and Native American women are underrepresented as tenured and tenure-track faculty in STEM disciplines compared to white women, and the challenges to recruitment, retention, and advancement may not be the same for these groups of women. All ADVANCE proposals are expected to address intersectionality and should offer strategies to promote gender equity for all faculty. Intersectionality is a concept found in the social sciences which recognizes that gender does not exist in isolation from other characteristics, such as race/ethnicity, disability status, sexual orientation, foreign-born and foreign-trained status, faculty appointment type, etc. Note the additional review criterion in this solicitation related to this expectation.
Adaptation: Three-year projects to adapt and implement proven organizational and systemic change strategies to foster gender equity for STEM faculty.
Project Scope: The Adaptation track supports the adaptation and implementation of proven organizational and systemic change strategies, ideally from among those developed and implemented by previous ADVANCE projects. This track recognizes that during the history of ADVANCE, many grantees have developed strategies that can be implemented by others to address issues of gender equity. Adaptation awards may be made to non-profit academic institutions that have not had an ADVANCE IT award. Two-year institutions, predominantly undergraduate institutions, master’s level institutions, and Minority-Serving Institutions are particularly encouraged to apply for an Adaptation award. Projects at academic institutions are expected to include all departments and schools with STEM faculty. In addition, Adaptation awards can be made to STEM organizations eligible for NSF support that are not academic institutions. These types of projects may focus on all STEM disciplines, several STEM disciplines, or only one STEM discipline but must propose to implement organizational and systemic change strategies to enhance gender equity in STEM academics. Both types of Adaptation projects may address a specific issue (or set of issues) of gender inequity supported by an analysis of institutional data and other relevant data. To the extent possible, data should be disaggregated by the multiple characteristics to be addressed by the project (race, ethnicity, disability status, sexual orientation, foreign-born and foreign-trained status, faculty appointment type, etc.), in addition to gender.
Sponsor Letters of Intent (required):
Letters of intent are required for Adaptation proposals. The letters of intent will be used for planning the review of proposals. Letters of intent must clearly indicate the specific track for which the proposers are applying. No formal invitation to submit a full proposal will be issued after the letter of intent has been received. Only one letter of intent for Adaptation proposal can be submitted from a non-profit academic institution that has not had an ADVANCE IT award before or from a STEM organization. A separate letter of intent for each planned Partnership proposal is required even if submitted by the same organization or principal investigator.
Letters of Intent must include:
Project Synopsis: Provide a description of the gender equity problem(s) in STEM academics to be addressed, the proposed project and the ADVANCE track for which the proposal will seek funding.
List senior project personnel with a brief description of their proposed roles.
Downselect requirements (4 page limit):
In ONE document, pdf form, with the title: NSF_ADVANCE_{your last name}_{your first name}.pdf
Provide a brief description of the gender equity problem(s) in STEM academics to be addressed.
Provide a brief overview of qualitative and quantitative data regarding the current status of women in STEM academics relevant to the project and the gender equity problem(s) to be addressed with the proposed project.
Summarize the proposed strategies linked to resolving the gender equity problem(s) identified in the data analysis and be based on relevant learning, social, behavioral, and economic science research.
List senior project personnel with a brief description of their proposed roles.