Mentoring Program for Faculty at Minority-Serving Institutions

The NBER, in partnership with Spelman College, has launched a mentoring program to support faculty at colleges and universities which serve a high percentage of students from minority groups and who are interested in applying for research grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). This program is supported by an NSF grant for study of the impact of mentoring. Danielle Dickens of Spelman College, Angelino Viceisza of Spelman College and the NBER, and NBER President James Poterba of MIT are the principal investigators on this grant. Further information on the advisory board and grant activities may be found at www.nber.org/programs-projects/projects-and-centers/boosting-grant-applications-faculty-msis

The mentoring program provides course release time for five faculty members at minority-serving institutions in the 2022–23 academic year, and for ten in the 2023–24 year. Mentees, who were selected at random from the pool of eligible applicants, will be matched with mentors who have substantial expertise in both their research field and in grant writing. They will work together for at least one semester to draft and submit an NSF research proposal. The project is designed not only to provide mentoring, but also to assess how such mentoring affects grant and research activity.

The project held an inaugural virtual workshop (https://conference.nber.org/altsched/BGAs22) on February 25 to describe the opportunities for research funding from the NSF. The workshop also included perspectives on the application process from current and past NSF program officers.