In 2023 a collaborative team led by FL-RDA Secretary Melanie Bauer (NSU) with FL-RDA President Joshua Roney (UCF), member Rachel Goff-Albritton (FSU), and member Shari Moore (FAMU) proposed and were awarded a $100,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) GRANTED program Convenings grant, being in the first round of awards made through this new NSF program. As noted on the award page (Award No. 2324520):
In partnership with state and national professional societies, the convenings will capture ideas for answering several questions in service of emerging research institutions, their diverse professoriate, and the Research Development (RD) professional knowledge base: 1) How can staff and administrators with various position descriptions engage in research development activities to coach, connect, and champion the faculty they support, especially those early in their research career?; 2) What are actionable metrics for individual faculty in terms of planning their research activities and for institutions in terms of strategic investment in their research enterprise?; and 3) How do you leverage the resources and expertise held by local, state, and national networks to the benefit of demographically diverse, early-career faculty in all types of institutional settings?
Starting in Fall 2023 through Spring 2024, the leaders of the project will host focus groups at state and national professional society conferences (FL-RDA, FRAC, NORDP, and NCURA), and also at a virtual faculty-only event, to gather ideas around the above three questions. Each convening event will be followed by a survey to the larger membership of each professional group and to a larger faculty audience, respectively.
After the conclusion of the convenings, the project leaders will generate a summary report and list of recommendations organized around the guiding themes of planting RD support seeds, accessing actionable metrics, and leveraging multiple knowledge bases toward supporting new faculty at emerging-research and minority-serving institutions.
Read more about this initiative: