DOE's Office of Science Expands Program for Faculty Historically Underrepresented in STEM Research

Applications are currently being accepted for the Spring 2023 term of the DOE Office of Science’s Visiting Faculty Program (VFP)

• As part of Office of Science’s RENEW initiative, the program is expanding to offer extended opportunities for faculty to engage in research and build collaborations at the National Laboratories
• This opportunity will strengthen partnerships between DOE national laboratories and two-year colleges, minority-serving institutions (MSIs), and other colleges and universities nationwide
• VFP seeks to increase the research competitiveness of faculty members and their students at institutions historically underrepresented in STEM to expand the workforce vital to DOE mission areas
• As such, VFP especially attracts faculty members from MSIs, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
• Typically, about 50% of the participants are from MSIs, one-third of which are HBCUs. Selected college and university faculty members collaborate with DOE laboratory scientific research staff on research projects of mutual interest.  Each participating faculty member may invite one or two students (one of whom may be a graduate student) to join the research team during a summer term
• The program will focus on faculty only in non-summer terms
• The application deadline is October 5, 2022

Read more at the U.S. Department of Energy.

ScienceCounts, with support from the Science in Society Funders Collaborative,*  is accepting applications for the ScienceCounts Civic Science Fellow for Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Public Engagement, a unique 18-month fellowship. A description of this opportunity can be found at https://sciencecounts.org/civic-science/.

The person who will be selected for this fellowship should be an energetic, action-oriented individual who will help design, pilot, and evaluate a novel public science engagement program involving a community in need. Are you one of the thousands of earlier career individuals eager for a chance to make a positive impact in your community?

The ScienceCounts Civic Science Fellowship is a chance to do that, and CSSP is pleased to have been notified of this program so that we can share it with our broad network.

NSB’s Vision 2030 emphasizes the urgent need for greater participation of women and other underrepresented groups in the U.S. science and engineering enterprise and ensuring that research benefits reach all Americans. Last week, the National Science Board (NSB) passed two resolutions to advance both goals.  One resolution aims to address unconscious biases and improve the preparedness of proposal reviewers. The second seeks to increase the potential of proposals’ Broader Impacts (BI) to benefit society.

“The Board is committed to working with NSF to find new ways to advance our shared goals that are essential to building America’s workforce and ensuring its innovation leadership. These two resolutions are an important step,” said NSB Chair Ellen Ochoa. “We trust in Director Panchanathan and his creative staff to find the best way to implement the policies we outline in the resolutions and look forward to getting an update on their impact.”

Both resolutions require an evaluation and report back to the NSB within 12 months.

The Council of Scientific Society Presidents has been made aware of an opportunity from the Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) that we are pleased to be able to share. Scientific societies are in a unique position to be able to lead change that will expand and enhance the structure and culture of science networks.

CSSP is pleased to share this important opportunity with our community.

Our August CSSP Chat on Ensuring Diversity and Equity in STEM, led by Dr. Beronda Montogmery, brought to light many valuable ideas and thought processes around these issues. Introducing the idea gatekeeping or groundskeeping prompted lively discussion on ways to expand diversity through the cultivation and enactment of leadership philosophies and progressive vision rather than just looking at "skills and tactics." More information about this philosophy can be found in Dr. Montgomery's paper on "Academic Leadership: Gatekeeping or Groundskeeping?" published in the Journal of Values Based Leadership.

This timely conversation also included thoughts for ways in which to communicate how each society presents their culture to both current and future members. Included in those thoughts were:

• Evaluating your society on its three “R’s” – Representation, Reputation, Resources
• Easy to embrace definitions - Diversity: being invited to the party. Inclusion: being asked to dance.
• When considering diversity within your society, it's important to look beyond just the "numbers" and look to the practices and experiences that are lived and espoused as well.
• Consideration for the language used when talking about these issues can also have a strong impact. An article on rethinking underrepresented language helps to see the influence that the language we use has on the way we see and are seen.
• How and what to include in surveys to aid in garnering greater and more honest participation from members.

The CSSP Chats create an opportunity to talk with other leaders of science societies about the challenges and goals being faced by all, and to hear and share experiences for how they have been and are being addressed - including successes and failures. Our next Chat will be on the topic of Managing Personal Transitions: Leadership Skills and your next job and will be presented on Thursday, September 17th at 12:30 pm ET.