The Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network has received support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to offer a proposal development workshop for 50 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) faculty from Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) who intend to submit proposals to the NSF's Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program. The project's overall goal is to increase the number of MRI awards to MSIs.
Intellectual Merit: Achieving the project's overall goal will provide STEM faculty at MSIs with state-of-the art instrumentation with which to conduct research that will lead to new knowledge and applications. As a result, this group of grantees can increase their scholarly productivity; integrate their research findings into the courses they teach; and provide their students with hands-on experiences using the acquired or developed instrumentation.
Broader Impacts: Increasing the participation of MSIs in the MRI Program will enrich the education program and research opportunities at institutions that play a major role in the production of minority STEM baccalaureate degree recipients and that disproportionately produce minority graduates who earn STEM doctoral degrees. MRI-supported instrumentation at these institutions will improve students' access to a high quality STEM education provided by faculty actively engaged in research and will better prepare them to successfully pursue STEM graduate degrees or join the Nation's STEM workforce. Instrumentation, obtained through MRI awards, will significantly enhance STEM education at these institutions through expanded undergraduate and graduate research opportunities and increased faculty scholarly productivity.
The overall goal of this National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project (Award #1219780) to the Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network is to increase the capacity of minority-serving institutions (MSIs) to submit competitive proposals to the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program. The QEM/Major Research Insturmentation (MRI) project's main objective is to increase the number of proposal submissions and subsequent MRI awards to MSIs. The QEM/MRI project supports faculty from MSIs to strengthen their proposal development skills and to provide advice in acquiring the instrumentation/equipment needed in the conduct of their research. The QEM/MRI proposal development workshops assisted faculty from participating institutions in further developing their ideas for proposals they planned to submit to NSF’s MRI Program or refining their unsuccessful proposals to address the issues raised and make their proposals more competitive. QEM provided faculty with information on such topics as NSF merit review criteria; the components and characteristics of competitive proposals; the costs and discipline-focused use of research instrumentation; and the integration of research into teaching. Under this two-year award, during the period from November 2012-November 2014, the QEM Network conducted three MRI Information and Proposal Development Workshops and two Proposal Follow-up Workshops for 127 faculty from MSIs. Twenty-four (19 percent) of the participants were women. Workshop sessions included a review of the MRI Program’s purpose and NSF review criteria by NSF staff as well as presentations and discussions, led by consultants, on the weaknesses in non-funded MRI proposals and strengths of funded MRI Proposals; ethics in research and the responsible conduct of research; developing specific MRI proposal components, including the narrative, management plan, and budget; involving undergraduates in research; and using NSF’s FastLane for submitting proposals and reports. At the end of each workshop, participants received evaluation questionnaires to solicit feedback regarding their overall workshop experience. On a Likert scale that also included the options "average," "fair," and "poor, at least 97 percent of workshop respondents gave the MRI workshop they attended an overall rating of "excellent" or "very good." An E-Resource File or Resource CD, with links to information and resource materials, was produced and distributed at each workshop. QEM strongly encouraged the participants to share the workshop E-Resource files, Resource CDs, and information packets with other STEM faculty on their campuses to increase their knowledge/potential use of promising effective STEM research and instructional/mentoring strategies. The workshop agendas, with links to presentations, and E-Resource files are available on QEM’s website, accessible via the following URLs: www.qem.org/calendar.htm (QEM events calendar) and www.qem.org/MRI.htm (project website). Intellectual Merit. MRI-funded instrumentation provides increased research capacity, which in turn significantly expands undergraduate research opportunities; promotes the integration of research and teaching; and enhances faculty scholarly productivity overall. Increasing access to cutting-edge major instrumentation will enrich education program and research opportunities at institutions that play a major role in the production of minority baccalaureate degree recipients in STEM. Broader Impacts. MRI-supported instrumentation at MSIs will improve students’ access to a research-intensive educational environment and faculty role models who will be a catalyst for enhancing STEM undergraduate education, expanded research opportunities for students, and increased faculty scholarly productivity in STEM research. The increased participation and success of MSIs in the NSF MRI Program will address national priorities for diversifying the STEM workforce and supporting increased core research in STEM. QEM workshops support national efforts to broaden the representation of scientists and professionals in STEM and facilitate increased diversity of contributions to the scientific enterprise. === Under the leadership of President Shirley McBay, the Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network was established in 1990 as a non-profit organization in Washington, DC, dedicated to improving education for minorities throughout the nation. QEM works with minority and non-minority individuals, organizations, and institutions to help coordinate and energize efforts to improve the education of minorities, particularly in STEM. QEM/MRI Projects have been an important part of this effort and have provided an array of insights, talent, and resources to broaden the participation of minority-serving institutions (MSIs) in STEM research and education.
