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AAC&U Grant Writing and Innovation Exchange Institute

The AAC&U Grant Writing Innovation Exchange is a multifaceted professional development institute for STEM faculty that provides unique opportunities for disciplinary STEM faculty, higher education theorists, grantwriting strategists, and STEM education researchers to bi-directionally translate, transfer, blend, and classify broadening participation practices and theories aimed at talented, low-income students into a system of successful interventions and common accountability measures.

Creating solutions to support the success of our undergraduate STEM students, particularly those who are academically talented and from low-income households, requires intentional exchange – through dialogue and discourse – between teaching and research communities. Overall, our goal is to substantially accelerate STEM higher education reform by cultivating: 1) common ways of knowing, understanding, and valuing undergraduate STEM teaching, education research, and evaluation; 2) a shared capacity for and competence in the measurement of quality undergraduate STEM teaching; and 3) a collective intelligence about and appreciation for grounding broadening participation interventions directed toward talented, low-income STEM students within a social justice framework.

At the AAC&U Grant Writing Innovation Exchange Institute and Regional Clinics, STEM faculty, STEM education researchers, higher education theorists, and evaluators who have interest and expertise in broadening participation programs and are committed to retaining talented low income STEM students, not only develop a common understanding and language for determining success in broadening participation interventions, but will also take advantage of opportunities to engage in: 

  • Critical reflection intended to deconstruct dynamics of power and privilege surrounding evaluation and education research
  • Scholarly work that demonstrates the kinds of evidence that illuminate underlying theories and frameworks related to broadening participation interventions in STEM higher education reform
  • Hands on experiences with review of extant literature on and development of theories of change that address inequities in specific, local, or global circumstances.
  • Exploration of issues in the development of measures and indicators that are sensitive to capturing changes in underrepresented individuals and communities
  • Developing downstream and upstream solutions to be competitively positioned for sustained funding opportunities aimed at broadening the participation of marginalized students in STEM
  • Practical skill building for developing competitive proposals to the National Science Foundation’s S-STEM Program

Who Should Apply?

The AAC&U Grant Writing Innovation Exchange is open to all STEM faculty from all institution types.

For further information about the AAC&U Grant Writing Innovation Exchange, please email us at knowledge-xchange@aacu.org.  

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