The NSF Broadening Participation in Engineering Program is Offering a Grant to Fund Research for a More Diverse and Inclusive U.S. Engineering Workforce.

BPE funds research to

• Understand and analyze the systemicbarriers that prevent underrepresented groups from pursuing and succeeding in engineering, for example, understand the problem of insufficient interest and poorly sustained participation in engineering across underrepresented demographic groups; insufficient preparation and scarce opportunities for members of underrepresented groups to learn meaningful, relevant engineering content.
• Understand and analyze factors that enhance our ability to increase access to engineering by creating support systems and social networks that raise career awareness about different engineering pathways.
• Develop innovativemethods and projectstosignificantly impact the recruitment and retention ofengineering students from underrepresented groups. Activities must be supported by relevant dataand have the capability to produce a model that can be replicated in other contexts.
• Develop innovativemethods and projectsto aggressively recruit and retain tenure track faculty from underrepresented groups.
• Design and transform culture to make diversity, equity, and inclusion a priority in the engineering enterprise.

BPE research activities will provide scientific evidence that engineering educators, employers, and policy makers need to make informed decisions to design effective programs that broaden the participation of persons from historically underrepresented groups in the engineering workforce. BPE is interested in funding research that spans K-12 to workforce and offers the greatest return on investment. BPE funded research shouldproduce outcomes that are scalable, sustainable, and applicable to various contexts, settings, and demographics within the engineering enterprise. BPE is particularly interested inresearch that employs intersectional approaches in recognition that gender, race and ethnicity do not exist in isolation from each other and from other categories of social identity.

BPE is equally interested in research activities that align with and provide meaningful connections to the NSF INCLUDES National Network. The overarching goal of NSF INCLUDES is to achieve significant impact at scale in transforming STEM education and workforce development by educating a diverse, STEM-capable workforce that includes talented individuals from all sectors of the Nation’s population. Collaborations are encouraged between BPE proposals and existing NSF INCLUDES projects, for example, the NSF INCLUDES Alliances and Coordination Hub, provided these collaborations strengthen both the BPE and NSF INCLUDES projects.

Before submitting a proposal to the BPE program, prospective Principal Investigators are strongly encouraged to speak to the program director to obtain guidance as to whether the proposed ideas are aligned with the strategic goals of the BPE program.

Proposal Elements