The award from the Chemistry Division supports an Undergraduate Research Centers (URC) planning grant. The PI is John A. Bumpus, assisted by co-PIs, Duane E. Bartak and Bryan Larsen. The planning activities will develop an URC consisting of fifteen primarily undergraduate institutions, a research institution (The University of Minnesota) and a graduate research university of the health sciences (Des Moines University). The center will include two international participants, L'Ecole Nationale Superiure de Chimie de Rennes (Rennes, France) and the Russian State Pedagogical University (St. Petersburg, Russia), an industrial participant (Microbia, Inc.) and the Iowa Academy of Science. The overall goal is to enhance the research culture, infrastructure and capacity at the participating institutions. Three regional centers will be established. They will serve as a focus for research collaboration and expertise for the faculty members at PUIs. Assistance at developing undergraduate research programs will be addressed through peer mentoring programs including: workshops on grant writing and grantsmanship skills, workshops on new techniques, mini-symposia and round table discussions focusing on improving undergraduate research programs. Participants will be provided access to instrumentation, expertise and support for collaborative opportunities that may not be available at their home institutions. Outreach efforts building upon existing programs for high school teachers and students will be used as templates for establishing such efforts at their participating institutions.
