Dear Colleague Letter: Announcement of an Effort to Expand the NSF INCLUDES National Network

NSF INCLUDES (Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science) is an effort to enhance U.S. leadership in STEM and is one of the 10 “Big Ideas” for Future NSF Investment.

NSF is focused on ways new and currently funded projects can engage with the INCLUDES National Network and is encouraging the submission of funding requests in the following areas:

• Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER)
• Conferences and Workshops
• Supplements to Existing NSF-funded Grants

There are two submission deadlines for funding requests in response to this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL).

• November 13, 2017
• April 16, 2018

Before submitting EAGER or Conference proposals, eligible Principal Investigator(s) should email nsfincludes@nsf.gov with a one-page description of their project to determine suitability for this NSF INCLUDES DCL and the appropriate deadline for the proposals.

To ensure proper processing, please begin the proposal title with: DCL: NSF INCLUDES.

NSF is interested in applying the best approaches, activities, and strategies to increasing diversity in STEM. These include but are not limited to the following:

• Increasing the percentage of women participating in fields where they are currently underrepresented
• Developing and expanding proven strategies that result in student persistence among underrepresented minority groups across all degree areas
• Increasing the representation of NSF-funded principal investigators in the NSF directorates’ research portfolios who come from minority-serving institutions
• Increasing the number of faculty from underrepresented groups in stable, long-term faculty positions that support research and education
• Furthering evidence-based research that illustrates the efficacy of the various approaches, especially collective impact-style approaches

Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER)

• Conduct research on the implementation and impact of strategies to improve specific problems of diversity and inclusion in STEM, especially strategies focused on expanding networks and scaling effective innovations; or
• Examine strategies being used in projects in the existing NSF broadening participation portfolio. For example, research could examine the implementation, impact, network expansion, and scaling of change strategies used in NSF-funded projects within the NSF INCLUDES portfolio of Design and Development Launch Pilots, or projects funded through such programs as ADVANCE, the Broadening Participation in Computing Alliances, the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP), Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and Math and Science Partnership, or the outreach activities of NSF research centers and large facilities aimed at broadening participation.

Conferences and Workshops

• Link to the NSF INCLUDES National Network the knowledge and results from the NSF broadening participation portfolio of programs and projects, and from NSF center-scale activities (e.g., Science and Technology Centers and Engineering Research Centers, among others), or other major Foundation investments, and encourage new opportunities for collaboration across the network;
• Generate novel ideas for how new and existing collaborations and organizations can help shape opportunities for connecting to INCLUDES;
• Communicate research findings from the science of broadening participation research community to INCLUDES, especially as these pertain to new efforts to translate basic research into practice; or
• Provide a platform for new collaborations within INCLUDES to discuss the development of shared goals, common metrics, and mutually reinforcing activities.

Supplements to Existing NSF-funded Grants

• Create opportunities among currently funded NSF projects, including NSF broadening participation projects, with the goal to build a collaborative infrastructure for broadening participation in NSF-funded research activities;
• Provide seed money for experiments in using effective strategies to further broadening participation goals through collaborative change;
• Develop linkages between current activities and NSF INCLUDES-funded Design and Development Launch Pilots, including adoption of common goals, shared measures, and mutually reinforcing activities; or
• Generate new ideas for bringing a community of NSF-funded projects into INCLUDES.

To read the entire Dear Colleague Letter, please see https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2017/nsf17111/nsf17111.jsp