Planning: BRAID-CMC Alliance Workshop

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will lead a planning effort that is specifically designed to foster new research and educational partnerships between eight US minority-serving institutions (MSIs) that have programs in marine and climate science and a cluster of six marine and climate science research institutions located in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. These fourteen institutions, along with a Racial Equity Research team whose members come from the University of South Carolina, Salem State University, George Mason University, and Temple University, and with facilitators, affiliates, and evaluators from addition institutions, will form the BRAIDC-MC Alliance (BRinging together Allies In Diversifying Climate and Marine Careers). The long-term goal of this Alliance is to develop an evolving ecosystem for US MSIs and research institutions in climate and marine science that can collaborate on proposals to be submitted to the Directorate of Geosciences’ GeoPATHS and/or GOLD-EN programs and the NSF INCLUDES Program. The focus of these proposals will be to co-create strategies for broadening participation and success of the faculty, students, and workforces who remain underrepresented in the marine and climate science disciplines. The planning project will bring together representatives from a wide range of institutions to focus on creating a network and collaboration for US MSIs and other research institutions in climate and marine science. The planning effort will concrete partnerships within the BRAID-CMC Alliance, which will in turn initiate specific efforts to develop NSF proposals to increase MSI faculty and student access to national marine and climate science research resources. A Steering Committee has been identified and is assembled from BRAID members who expressed interest in leading the planning process and who are knowledgeable about best practices in institutional collaborations and the social science behind racial inequity. The planning activities include a “Toolbox” session to build trust and relationships, boundary spanning and network development activities, and cross-institution collaboration and grant writing activities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.