ADVANCE: Organizational Change for Gender Equity in STEM Academic Professions

The NSF ADVANCE program contributes to the National Science Foundation’s goal of a more diverse and capable science and engineering workforce.1 In this solicitation, the NSF ADVANCE program seeks to build on prior NSF ADVANCE work and other research and literature concerning gender, racial, and ethnic equity. The NSF ADVANCE program goal is to broaden the implementation of evidence-based systemic change strategies that promote equity for STEM2 faculty in academic workplaces and the academic profession. The NSF ADVANCE program provides grants to enhance the systemic factors that support equity and inclusion and to mitigate the systemic factors that create inequities in the academic profession and workplaces. Systemic (or organizational) inequities may exist in areas such as policy and practice as well as in organizational culture and climate. For example, practices in academic departments that result in the inequitable allocation of service or teaching assignments may impede research productivity, delay advancement, and create a culture of differential treatment and rewards. Similarly, policies and procedures that do not mitigate implicit bias in hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions could lead to women and racial and ethnic minorities being evaluated less favorably, perpetuating historical under-participation in STEM academic careers and contributing to an academic climate that is not inclusive.

All NSF ADVANCE proposals are expected to use intersectional approaches in the design of systemic change strategies in recognition that gender, race and ethnicity do not exist in isolation from each other and from other categories of social identity. The solicitation includes four funding tracks: Institutional Transformation (IT), Adaptation, Partnership, and Catalyst, in support of the NSF ADVANCE program goal to broaden the implementation of systemic strategies that promote equity for STEM faculty in academic workplaces and the academic profession.

Letter of Intent Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. submitter’s local time):

First Monday in August, Annually Thereafter

Letters of Intent are only required for Adaptation and Partnership tracks. Submitting a letter of intent automatically allows you to submit a full proposal. Work on the full proposal should have started well before the letter of intent deadline.

Preliminary Proposal Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. submitter’s local time):

Fourth Thursday in April, Annually Thereafter

IT-Preliminary proposal Target Date – preliminary proposals are only required for institutions of higher education that want to submit a full Institutional Transformation proposal. IT-preliminary proposals are accepted before and after the target date.

Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. submitter’s local time):

Catalyst proposals – First Friday in August

Institutional Transformation proposals – First Thursday in October

Partnership and Adaptation proposals – First Wednesday in November

Partnership and Adaptation full proposal deadline – if you submitted a letter of intent then you can submit the full proposal. Work on the full proposal should have started well before the letter of intent deadline.