Building a diverse ocean science community through collaboration: Reframing the R1-MSI research partnership model.

The project addresses the lack of representation of minority serving institutions (MSIs) within the research funding portfolio of the National Science Foundation (NSF). To address this issue, this project provides a unique training program to support faculty and staff at Alaska Native Serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, Pacific Islanders Serving Institutions and Tribal Colleges around the process of developing competitive grant applications for the Division of Ocean Science at NSF.

Participants will learn the process of writing proposals within the context of different NSF funding programs and learn how to develop research networks that can be leveraged within a proposal. The team is also working with Tier 1 Research Institutions (R1) to help them understand how to incorporate MSI partners in grant proposals beyond the role of outreach and/or education specialists.

In a culminating workshop, this project brings together participants from MSI and R1 institutions to develop collaborative research projects that draw upon their respective expertise and to design unique research ideas that will advance 21st century ocean science. This approach provides a model for how MSI and R1 institutions can adapt their current collaborative approach to improve the number of MSIs receiving ocean science research funding from NSF.

The project aims to cultivate an ocean science community with the knowledge and skills to reframe how MSIs and R1s collaborate within the grant proposal development process. To bring about this change, the team is developing workshops that will train personnel at MSIs and R1s on how to navigate barriers to inclusion in the NSF ocean science grant community.

Workshops will focus on improving participant familiarity with NSF programs and processes, developing synergies that overcome inequities in grant development resources available between MSI and R1s, and improving familiarity by R1 personnel with the research and overall culture inherent within MSI institutions. Beyond including faculty, this project also works with sponsored programs staff at each institution type to 1) help them better understand how to navigate administrative requirements associated with NSF grants, and 2) develop ways in which each respective institutions’ internal grant support structures can be leveraged within collaborative proposals.

This latter category can be particularly restrictive for MSIs which may not have the sponsored program infrastructure available at R1 institutions. This model promotes authentic collaborations between MSIs and R1 to support NSF’s ocean research mission while meeting broader goals of increasing the diversity of those engaging in ocean science 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.