Description

The Sloan Foundation is soliciting Letters of Inquiry (LOIs) for projects that seek to dismantle systemic barriers and create sustainable pathways to graduate education in the above disciplines for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students. Compelling LOIs will result in the invitation of a full proposal.  This is a national competition.

Proposed projects may take multiple forms, for example, planning activities on MSI campuses that set the stage for new pathways between MSIs and graduate programs at other MSIs or at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs); projects that establish mutually beneficial partnerships between undergraduate and graduate programs at two or more institutions, at least one of which must be a MSI; and reform of graduate recruitment efforts, admission policies and processes, mentoring practices, and other gatekeeping (or gateway) structures within STEM graduate programs that open doors for students from MSIs. In short, we are looking to invest in efforts that seek to change the nature of graduate pathways at multiple levels, instead of reinforcing existing systems that fail to truly serve many Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students. 

The full Request for LOIs is provided here:  https://sloan.org/programs/higher-education/diversity-equity-inclusion/equitable-pathways-loi

Requirements

Three types of grants will be funded:

1. Planning grants to support two or more institutions to conduct internal reviews of existing barriers to student success and for analysis and planning for future systemic change partnerships/collaborations ($75,000 for 1 year);
2. Seed grants to support work at two or more institutions that seek to formalize existing systemic change partnerships/collaborations and launch a small set of pilot initiatives ($250,000 over 1-2 years); and
3. Implementation grants to support work at two or more institutions that allow for the creation, augmentation or scaling of significant formal systemic change partnerships/collaborations ($500,000 over 2-3 years).

We request only one letter of inquiry (as the lead institutional partner) per institution, and only one submission per individual PI. We expect to award up to 3 implementation grants, with additional funding going to planning and seed grants. Another Call for Letters of Inquiry is expected to take place in 2022 and 2023, during which time planning/seed grants funded in 2021 will be eligible for an award to scale their efforts. Over time, it is expected that the Foundation will seek to invest in successful efforts at more substantial grant amounts.

Submissions are due no later than June 1, 2021 by 5:00pm EDT. Materials must be integrated into a single PDF document and sent by email to dei@sloan.org, with the following subject heading: “STEM Pathways LOI—Lead PI Last Name”. If invited, full proposals will be due September 1, 2021.

Please contact dei@sloan.org with additional questions.