The National Science Foundation Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences announces the creation of Build & Broaden

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) has released a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), announcing the creation of a new program called Build & Broaden (B²) and calling for the submission of conference proposals to further examine the goals of the program.  B² is one of a few highly anticipated new programs at SBE proposed by Assistant Director Dr. Arthur “Skip” Lupia.  The program fundamentally seeks innovative solutions to address the low numbers of competitive research proposals from Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs)[1] at SBE relative to other institutions.  The DCL is specifically looking to build research capacity at MSIs by improving meaningful partnerships among MSIs and/or between MSIs and “R1” research institutions.

Proposals may address any SBE field and collaborations must include at least one MSI.  SBE intends to support up to 10 conferences and proposers are strongly encouraged to host the conference on a campus of a partnering MSI.  As noted in the DCL, in addition to being a priority for SBE, enhancing diversity and inclusion in research proposals is a major goal for NSF as a whole and was a identified as a core value in the agency’s 2018-2022 strategic plan.  Applicants that can successfully demonstrate meaningful research partnerships with/among MSIs that bolster the strength of MSI research capacities could be more competitive for future awards at SBE as B² expands and in other programs throughout NSF.  Responses to the DCL are due May 1, 2020.  The Dear Colleague Letter can be found at https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2020/nsf20048/nsf20048.jsp.