Distributed RD--Building A National Network of Enterprise Research Support for PUIs Convenings

Potential PIs at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs) and Emerging Research Institutions (ERIs) face numerous inhibitions and barriers to seeking funding and producing competitive research proposals to NSF and other granting agencies. Speculations and assumptions are more common than empirical evidence and PUI/ERI voices about how they differ in these respects from R1 institutions. A pilot study indicates that one to three staff in each PUI perform the same core RD functions as the more specialized RD staff at R1s, but these functions compete within these generalists’ portfolios of research-related tasks.

With NSF GRANTED support, we are organizing our workshops on Distributed RD--Building A National Network of Enterprise Research Support for Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (BANNERS-PUI). This “BANNERS-PUI” activity will result in an analytic report and suite of recommendations to explore, demonstrate, and evaluate pathways to mitigate the challenges of federal grants submission and management for sponsored STEM research at PUIs, including the roles that professional organizations can play in this effort going forward.

We are delighted to now be inviting interested participants to register for our workshops. The overarching objective is to support and strengthen access, participation, and competitiveness of ERIs in the research enterprise. It is focused on the pre-award component of the research service infrastructure particularly research development and its connections with research administration, recognizing that research development at many ERIs is very different from RD at large research institutions. We will assess strengths and opportunities for growth and brainstorm solutions that leverage strengths.

There are four separate workshops, three in-person in different geographic locations (California, Pennsylvania, Indiana) and one virtual in order to maximize the potential for widespread participation. Limited travel support is available thanks to the NSF grant.

Please use this form to express your interest in participating in a workshop - by Tuesday, June 18.