Two major funding opportunities have been granted to Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with the hope of increasing diversity in education, diversity in the STEM field and graduation rates.
For HSIs
Sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the government organization announced that it will be investing $14 million into HSIs to create two new resource centers.
The UNIDOS Network Resource Center for Community Coordination (HSI-CCC), designed to build community among current and potential HSI awardees; and the Network Opportunities for Developing Equitable and Effective Evaluation at HSIs Center for Evaluation and Research Synthesis (HSI-CERS), designed to support the HSI community through culturally responsive evaluation practice, assessment and research development.
The NSF HSI Program Network Resource Centers and Hubs (HSI-Net) support the enhancement of undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, and the recruitment, retention and graduation of students pursuing associate or baccalaureate degrees in STEM.
“Building on past investments, these new centers will help NSF achieve its broadening participation goals in STEM by growing and strengthening the education and research support that facilitates student and faculty success at HSIs,” said NSF Assistant Director for STEM Education James L. Moore III. “NSF’s HSI-Net is creating opportunities everywhere through a national system of partners that supports knowledge sharing, institutional capacity building and undergraduate STEM education.”
The new centers will support and strengthen the HSI community by sharing knowledge and frameworks relevant to undergraduate STEM education and broadening participation efforts. The HSI-CCC goals and activities are arranged in four clusters:
- Foster connections in the HSI community by hosting an HSI principal investigator meeting, establishing strategic partnerships through technology and networking opportunities and organizing collaborative “innovation sandbox” meetings to design bold ideas.
- Develop the HSI community’s capacity for proposal development, leadership and teaching through proposal workshops and resource sharing, a Future HSI Leaders mentoring program, and faculty development of equity-minded teaching.
- Host listening sessions with HSI community members, convene an HSI Council of Experts and form working groups to design toolkits and resources on critical topics for HSIs. Read more resource and education news on DiversityComm here.
