The Horse H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies, the College of Engineering, and the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at the University of Michigan hereby apply for $1,149,642 under the Research Careers for Minority Scholars Program. These funds will be used to conduct the University of michigan Research Careers for Minority Scholars (UM-RCMS) Programs, a program of undergraduate research, faculty mentoring, and related support activities to identify highly talented students who are from minority groups underrepresented in science, engineering, and mathematics and encourage them to pursue doctoral study in these fields. The UM-RCMS program will annually appoint twenty students as UM- RCMS Scholars. Ten of these students will be from the Ann Arbor Campus undergraduate program; the others will be visitors invited from Historically Black, Hispanic-serving, or Native American- serving Universities, or from colleges and universities serving large proportions of students from these underrepresented populations. A unique aspect of the proposed UM-RCMS program is the Scientific Executive Committee, composed of a distinguished group of minority faculty with exceptional science research credentials and Associate Deans from the three sponsoring units. The Scientific Executive Committee, will oversee the RCMS Scholars Program and engage in all decisions regarding its execution, including selection of the students who will be designated as UM-RCMS Scholars each year and selecting research mentors most appropriate for these students. The primary direct benefits will be an increase in research and mentoring opportunities for talented students. 1. Um-RCMS will provide a forty percent increase in the available placements for visiting students in our Summer Research program, most of which are now directed toward SEM field. 2. UM-RCMS will permit a doubling of the full year placements available for University of Michigan undergraduate students in Science, Engineering and Mathematics, and the opening of such positions for the first time to juniors and seniors in SEM fields such as Geology, Astronomy, Biology, and Economics. 3. UM-RCMS will enable the University to make a significant increase in the duration and quality of the research and mentoring experience available to the most talented students in the SEM fields. Extended benefits will be realized by faculty and students at the University of Michigan, by the University as a whole and the communities it serves, and by colleges and Universities which have joined in partnerships with the University in order to increase the diversity of this nation's academic and scientific community.
