NSF Announces Program to Enhance Research at Minority-Serving Institutions

The National Science Foundation has announced a Build and Broaden program to support research and research capacity at minority-serving institutions (MSI) specifically in the social, behavioral and economic sciences.

As NSF explains, “Targeted outreach activities reveal that MSIs have varying degrees of familiarity with funding opportunities within NSF and particularly within the Social, Behavioral and Economic (SBE) Sciences Directorate. As a result, NSF is limited in its ability to support research and training opportunities in the SBE sciences at these institutions. With its emphasis on broadening participation, Build and Broaden is designed to address this problem.” This initiative seeks to redress varying degrees of familiarity with NSF funding opportunities among those at MSIs, which results in few grant submissions.

This latest initiative in the Build and Broaden program, which was launched in early 2020, will award 25 to 30 proposals depending on funding availability and proposal quality, and the total anticipated funding amount is $8 million. NAS explains that proposals may address any scientific and cross-disciplinary areas supported by SBE. These areas include anthropology, archaeology, cognitive neuroscience, decision science, ecological research, economics, geography, linguistics, law and science, organizational behavior, political science, public policy, security and preparedness, psychology, and sociology. 

Proposals will be reviewed through an ad hoc review, panel review or an internal NSF review based on intellectual quality, potential to increase research capacity at participating MSI(s), impacts on professional development of faculty and students at the participating MSI(s) and the nature of the partnership if there is more than one principal investigator.

The full proposal target date is Jan. 19, 2023.