Collaborative Research: Build and Broaden 2.0: California Alliance for Hispanic-serving Social Science Advancement (CAHSSA)

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).

The California Alliance for Hispanic-Serving Social Science Advancement (CAHSSA) builds and broadens the low participation of social science faculty in extramurally funded research with an examination of systemic barriers and comprehensive professional development programming and policies. The partnership between three California universities will serve 28 Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) of various sizes and representing unique regional factors in the California State University (CSU) and the University of California (UC) systems.

The outcomes of this project will serve as a model to advance research in wide-ranging disciplines that impact the health, prosperity, and welfare of the US public. CAHSSA implements a comparative content analysis of NSF social science proposal review comments at HSIs and non-HSIs to identify how social, behavioral, and economic research is constructed and practiced across institutional types as well as reveal any existing biases in the review process.

Results will inform the project's interventions that include virtual grant writing webinars and workshops, writing groups, intensive writing retreats, and social science leader seminars for more than 700 CSU and UC social sciences faculty and leaders.

The California Alliance for Hispanic-Serving Social Science Advancement (CAHSSA) will pursue a greater understanding of the challenges faced by social scientists at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) in the extramural funding process at the micro-level within varied campus types and at the macro-level through the examination of NSF reviewer perceptions of social science proposals. From a pool of nearly 4500, the PIs recruit more than 700 social sciences researchers and leaders from 22 California State University (CSU) HSI campuses and six University of California (UC) HSI campuses to participate in virtual webinars and workshops (N=500 researchers), writing groups (N=160 researchers), writing retreats (N=60 researchers), and seminars (N=100 leaders).

Methods include CSU and UC annual systemwide surveys, pre- and post-intervention participant evaluation surveys, focus group interviews, and content analysis of grant reviewer comments on 500 proposals over the prior ten years. The results of this project will serve as a national model for advancing a new dialogue on faculty professional development and the science of broadening participation by studying institutional factors that shape social science grant success at HSIs/MSIs.

The interventions will produce innovative grant proposals to enhance research in the social sciences as well as the revision of policies and procedures to strengthen practices that support social sciences grant and research activity at HSIs/MSIs.

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.