Historically Black Colleges and Universities - Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP)
HBCU-UP provides awards to strengthen STEM undergraduate education and research at HBCUs. Support is available through the following tracks:
- Targeted Infusion Projects (TIP), which provide support to achieve a short-term, well-defined goal for improving the quality of undergraduate STEM education at HBCUs.
- Broadening Participation Research (BPR) in STEM Education projects, which provide support for research that seeks to create and study new theory-driven models and innovations related to the participation and success of underrepresented groups in STEM undergraduate education.
- Research Initiation Awards (RIA), which provide support for STEM faculty with no prior or recent research funding to pursue research at the home institution, a NSF-funded research center, a research intensive institution, or a national laboratory.
- Implementation Projects (IMP), which provide support to design, implement, study, and assess comprehensive institutional efforts for increasing the number of students receiving undergraduate degrees in STEM and enhancing the quality of their preparation by strengthening STEM education and research. Within this track, Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) Implementation Projects are intended for HBCUs with exemplary achievements and established institutionalized foundations from previous Implementation Project grants.
- Broadening Participation Research Centers (BPRC), which provide support to conduct broadening participation research at institutions that have held three rounds of Implementation or ACE Implementation Projects and with demonstrated capability to conduct broadening participation research. Broadening Participation Research Centers are expected to represent the collective intelligence of HBCU STEM higher education, and serve as national hubs for the rigorous study and broad dissemination of the critical pedagogies and culturally sensitive interventions that contribute to the success of HBCUs in educating African American STEM undergraduates. Centers are expected to conduct research on STEM education and broadening participation in STEM; perform outreach to HBCUs in order to build capacity for conducting this type of research; and work to disseminate promising broadening participation research in order to enhance STEM education and research outcomes for African American undergraduates across the country.
- Other Funding Opportunities include EArly-Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER), Rapid Response Research (RAPID), conference, and planning grants.
The Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP)
TCUP provides awards to federally recognized Tribal Colleges and Universities, Alaska Native-serving institutions, and Native Hawaiian-serving institutions to promote high quality science (including sociology, psychology, anthropology, linguistics, economics and bioeconomics, statistics, and other social and behavioral sciences; natural sciences; computer science, including, but not limited to, artificial intelligence, quantum information science, and cybersecurity), technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), STEM education, research, and outreach. Support is available to TCUP-eligible institutions (see the Additional Eligibility subsection of Section IV of this solicitation) for transformative capacity-building or community engagement projects through Instructional Capacity Excellence in TCUP Institutions (ICE-TI), Targeted STEM Infusion Projects (TSIP),TCUP for Secondary and Elementary Teachers in STEM (TSETS), TCU Enterprise Advancement Centers (TEA Centers), Cyberinfrastructure Health, Assistance, and Improvements (CHAI), and Preparing for TCUP Implementation (Pre-TI). Collaborations led by TCUP institutions that involve non-TCUP institutions of higher education are supported through TCUP Partnerships, with the participation of other NSF programs to support the work of non-TCUP institutions. Finally, research studies that further the scholarly activity of individual faculty members are supported through Small Grants for Research (SGR). Through the opportunities highlighted above, as well as collaborations with other National Science Foundation (NSF) divisions and directorates, and other organizations, TCUP aims to increase Native individuals' participation in STEM careers, improve the quality of STEM programs at TCUP-eligible institutions, and facilitate the development of a strong STEM enterprise in TCUP institutions' service areas.