Grant Details

The goals of the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI program) are to enhance the quality of undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and to increase the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of students pursuing associates or baccalaureate degrees in STEM. Achieving these, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires additional strategies that support building capacity at HSIs through innovative approaches: to incentivize institutional and community transformation; and to promote fundamental research on the following topics:

• engaged student learning at HSIs,
• about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and
• that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs

The intended outcomes of the HSI Program include broadening the participation of students that are historically underrepresented in STEM and expanding students' pathways to continued STEM education and integration into the STEM workforce.

The HSI program accepts proposals in the following tracks:

Track 1: The Planning or Pilot Projects (PPP)

This track provides a funding opportunity for institutions that are new to NSF or are Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs), including community colleges. The PPP has been designed to link with the other two tracks. The PPP track seeks to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at less-resourced institutions and to increase these institutions' ability to compete for NSF funding from other programs.

Planning projects in this track undertake the activities necessary to develop a future HSI program Track 2 or Track 3 proposal submission. Pilot projects in this track may be carried out to achieve a short-term, well-defined goal to enhance the availability of high-quality undergraduate STEM education at the HSI and gather preliminary data for future HSI program Track 2 or Track 3 proposals. Importantly, Pilot projects may also develop fundamental STEM education research capacity on student learning at HSIs, discovering effective means for diversifying and increasing participation in STEM. All PPP projects must include project evaluation and dissemination components

Track 2: The Implementation and Evaluation Projects (IEP)

This track supports the implementation of evidence-based unit-, department-, or multi-department-level activities that will enhance the quality of undergraduate STEM education. All HSI institution types are encouraged to apply, especially PUIs (including community colleges). These projects may design and implement a new educational practice or practices, and/or adapt/replicate evidence-based practices that are already known to be effective.

IEP may conduct research that promotes one or more of the HSI program goals, including research on indicators of effective and successful undergraduate STEM education at HSIs. These projects must include both project evaluation and dissemination components, as well as an education research component. The IEP strategies are expected to be institutionalized and sustainable.

Track 3: The Institutional Transformation Projects (ITP)

This track supports institution-wide structural or systemic changes to enhance undergraduate STEM education at the proposing HSI. The ITP must be grounded in STEM education research and broadening participation research and be designed to make institutional infrastructure and policy changes to support longterm institutional changes that encourage and support faculty in implementing evidence-based practices that enhance student outcomes in STEM at the proposing HSI.

Under the ITP track, research (including foundational research) that improves our understanding of how to build HSI institutional capacity in STEM is encouraged. Such research should result in a strategic understanding about how the multiple components of the HSI program goals work synchronously to advance STEM education. All institution types are encouraged to apply, especially PUIs (including community colleges). Proposed activities can include adaptation of evidence-based strategies and/or the design and implementation of innovative strategies. The ITP must include both project evaluation and dissemination components, as well as an education research component. The ITP proposed structural or systemic changes are expected to be institutionalized and sustained by the HSI.

Workshops and Conferences: Proposals for conferences addressing critical challenges in undergraduate STEM education and broadening STEM participation at HSIs may be submitted at any time following consultation with an HSI program officer. Conference proposals that address increasing the diversity of institutions and faculty participating in the HSI program are strongly encouraged. Workshop proposals that catalyze knowledge exchange in the training of undergraduates at HSIs in areas related to the NSF Big Ideas and industries of the future (artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, quantum information science, and next-generation wireless) are encouraged. Workshops that speak to the complex challenges at HSIs and their diverse student populations such as implicit bias training, the role of intersectionality, and creating an inclusive environment for underrepresented undergraduate students and faculty in STEM at HSIs are encouraged.