ADVANCE: Organizational Change for Gender Equity in STEM Academic Professions (ADVANCE)
This NSF program supports systemic change projects to enhance gender equity and inclusion for STEM faculty
Synopsis
The NSF ADVANCE program contributes to the National Science Foundation's goal of a more diverse and capable science and engineering workforce.1 In this solicitation, the NSF ADVANCE program seeks to build on prior NSF ADVANCE work and other research and literature concerning gender, racial, and ethnic equity. The NSF ADVANCE program goal is to broaden the implementation of evidence-based systemic change strategies that promote equity for STEM2 faculty in academic workplaces and the academic profession. The NSF ADVANCE program provides grants to enhance the systemic factors that support equity and inclusion and to mitigate the systemic factors that create inequities in the academic profession and workplaces. Systemic (or organizational) inequities may exist in areas such as policy and practice as well as in organizational culture and climate. For example, practices in academic departments that result in the inequitable allocation of service or teaching assignments may impede research productivity, delay advancement, and create a culture of differential treatment and rewards. Similarly, policies and procedures that do not mitigate implicit bias in hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions could lead to women and racial and ethnic minorities being evaluated less favorably, perpetuating historical under-participation in STEM academic careers and contributing to an academic climate that is not inclusive.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
All NSF ADVANCE proposals are expected to take an intersectional approach regarding the salient categories of social identity for the project. Specifically, proposers should recognize that gender, race and ethnicity do not exist in isolation from each other and other categories of social identity, such as disability status, sexual orientation, economic background, first-generation status, faculty appointment type, etc. Intersectional approaches should be considered throughout the project design – from the data collection and analysis to identify systemic inequities, to the design of the project strategies, and into the project evaluation. Intersectional perspectives are important for identifying equity issues and solutions for underrepresented STEM faculty. Intersectional approaches are also important for identifying factors that need attention in order to effectively involve other STEM faculty whose social identities in addition to gender, race, and ethnicity, such as age, seniority and rank, being foreign-born and/or foreign-trained, may impact the culture and climate of the institution and require tailored equity building strategies to address. ADVANCE proposals should offer strategies that involve all faculty and promote equity for all faculty.
All ADVANCE proposals should report impacts on gender equity related to one or more of the following objectives:
The incorporation of intersectional approaches in ADVANCE equity strategies for STEM faculty in recognition that gender, race, and ethnicity do not exist in isolation from each other and from other categories of social identity;
The adaptation and implementation by IHEs and non-academic organizations of evidence-based systemic change strategies that have been shown to enhance equity for STEM faculty in academic workplaces and the academic profession; and
The empowerment of individual and organizational stakeholders to enhance equity for STEM faculty in academic workplaces and the academic profession. Stakeholders include but are not limited to STEM faculty, organizations that have STEM faculty as members, academic and organization leadership, organizations that have academic leadership as members, institution and organization advisory boards or boards of directors, editors and publishers, STEM professional societies, and higher education and organizational staff.
Description of the four different ADVANCE tracks:
1. The Institutional Transformation (IT) track supports the development, implementation and evaluation of innovative systemic change strategies within a single non-profit IHE with the intention that these innovative strategies could be adaptable by other IHEs and organizations. The IT project must include a rigorous research study related to the ADVANCE project that contributes to knowledge about gender equity and systemic change in STEM academics. The study may be based in the methods and theories from the social, behavioral, learning, or economic sciences. Projects that do not propose innovative strategies are more appropriate for the Adaptation track. Only IHEs that submit an IT-Preliminary proposal can submit a full IT proposal.
2. The Adaptation* track supports the adaptation and implementation of evidence-based organizational change strategies by a single non-profit:
Institution of Higher Education (IHE) to address systemic inequities for STEM faculty that includes all the STEM disciplines within the IHE. Prior ADVANCE IT-Catalyst grantees are encouraged to apply for an Adaptation project;
OR
Non-academic organization to address systemic inequities in STEM academic workplaces for STEM faculty within one or more STEM disciplines. Adaptation projects by non-academic organizations must be designed with national or regional impact and significant reach. Significant reach will be different depending on the systemic inequity issue(s) that are addressed, the population(s) targeted, and the proposed intervention(s). Information on the numbers and the percent of individuals or organizations reached, and the degree of change that is expected from those who participate, should be articulated in the proposal to explain the significance of the reach. For example, an Adaptation project by a STEM professional society to revamp the format of all their regional and national conferences in order to infuse equity and inclusion into the agenda and the pre-conference workshops could have national impact and significant reach within that discipline if a significant percentage of faculty in that discipline are members and attend the conferences and workshops.
3. The Partnership* track supports projects designed to result in the regional or national diffusion and/or scale-up of evidence-based systemic change strategies. Partnership projects are expected to involve two or more partners. Partnership projects must be designed to have a significant reach to individuals and/or organizations with evidence-based systemic change strategies to enhance equity for STEM faculty in academic workplaces and the academic profession. Individuals and organizations may include, but are not limited to, academic administrators, academic staff in relevant positions (such as human resource officers, institutional research directors, equal opportunity officers, and Title VII and Title IX officers), STEM faculty and leaders, editors and publishers, STEM professional societies, non-profit institutions of higher education, and STEM research funders. The proposer(s) must explain the significance of the reach in the proposal. Describe the intended reach of the project in numbers and percentages as well as the impact of the project in terms of the expected systemic, cultural and/or climatic change. This will be different depending on the systemic inequity issues that are being addressed, the population(s) of interest, and the proposed strategies.
*Opportunity for ADVANCE Adaptation and Partnership Proposers to Collaborate with other Projects Initiated with NSF Funds
ADVANCE Adaptation and Partnership projects are encouraged to propose a mutually beneficial collaboration with one or more projects initiated with NSF funds (NSF-initiated projects). These NSF-initiated projects can be within or outside the institution(s) participating in the proposed ADVANCE project and must fall into one of the following categories:
Systemic and institutional transformation projects: the institutional change track in the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) and the Institutional and Community Transformation track in the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE): EDU programs.
NSF INCLUDES National Network: The NSF INCLUDES National Network includes the Coordination Hub, Alliances, Design and Development Launch Pilots, planning grants, and conference projects.
STEM graduate education projects: such as Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP), Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE), CyberCorps (R): Scholarship for Service (SFS), and National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT).
ADVANCE Adaptation and Partnership projects that propose a collaboration may request up to an additional $250,000 over the life of the project. The additional funds are intended to support additional work to align systemic change and institutional transformation efforts particularly those impacting STEM faculty and to share equity and intersectional perspectives with other NSF projects. The funds are not intended for direct support to students, postdoctoral trainees, or faculty to do their STEM research or educational programs. The additional funds could cover costs such as travel and staff time, implementing collaborative activities, and the participation of additional individuals in ADVANCE project activities or the activities of the partner. NSF-initiated projects eligible for collaboration must be on-going: either currently funded by NSF or sustained with non-NSF funds. Letter(s) of collaboration from the NSF-initiated project representative(s) should be included in the supplementary documents.
4. The Catalyst track supports the design and implementation of an organizational self-assessment to collect and analyze data to identify STEM faculty inequities, pilot equity strategies as appropriate, and develop a five-year equity strategic plan for STEM faculty. Only non-profit IHEs that are not, and have not been, the lead on any type of ADVANCE grant are eligible.
Please note that NSF ADVANCE does not provide fellowships, research, or travel grants to individual students, postdoctoral researchers, or faculty to pursue STEM degrees or research. Undergraduate STEM opportunities can be found at stemundergrads.science.gov and graduate STEM opportunities at stemgradstudents.science.gov.
[1] Building the Future Investing in Innovation and Discovery: NSF Strategic Plan 2018-2022. https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2018/nsf18045/nsf18045.pdf.
[2] All the STEM fields supported by NSF are supported by the ADVANCE program including the learning, social, behavioral, and economic sciences. ADVANCE does not support the clinical science fields.
Upcoming due dates
Letter of intent required: Due August 7, 2023
Preliminary proposal required: Due April 25, 2024
Program guidelines
Award information
Pending availability of funds, NSF anticipates having up to $29,000,000 available over a period of two fiscal years for support of the NSF ADVANCE portfolio. It is expected that up to $15,000,000 will be available for the FY 2021 competition and approximately $14,000,000 will be available for proposals for the FY 2022 competition.
Estimated number of awards
18 to 36
Estimated number of awards description
The total number of awards to be made under this solicitation is estimated to be between 18 and 36 over two fiscal years.
In each year, NSF expects to make approximately:
six Adaptation awards up to $1,000,000 for three-year long projects
six Partnership awards up to $1,000,000 for up to five-year long projects
four Catalyst awards up to $300K for two years
NSF anticipates that two to four of the twelve Adaptation and Partnerships projects may qualify for an additional $250,000 for collaborating with a project initiated with NSF funding as described in the project description. Additionally, in FY 2021, the program anticipates making up to two Institutional Transformation awards for up to $3,000,000 for five-years. All award amounts include both direct and indirect costs.-
Eligible IHEs can submit one proposal to IT-Preliminary, Adaptation, OR Catalyst. IHEs can also be a partner on one or more Partnership proposals.
Eligible Non-profit, non-academic organizations can submit one proposal to the Adaptationcompetition and be a partner on one or more Partnership proposals.
IHEs and non-profit, non-academic organizations may be partners on multiple ADVANCE Partnershipproposals in the same competition but can be the lead organization only on one Partnership proposal in the same competition.
