Conference: North Carolina Supporting Sponsored Program Success (NC-SSPS)

Supporting the professional development of sponsored program personnel at the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) contributes to the national STEM enterprise. The North Carolina-Supporting Sponsored Program Success (NC-SSPS) project supports thirty-six research enterprise personnel from the public and private HBCUs across North Carolina to attend a two-day conference focused on enhancing research enterprise infrastructure. This will increase the institutional capability to access federal research funding and to engage the rural and urban communities where HBCUs conduct research. The North Carolina-Supporting Sponsored Program Success (NC-SSPS) project will catalyze the development of transformative ideas and a scalable model to strengthen the Nation’s research enterprise by growing capability and access to research support and service infrastructure particularly at emerging research and minority-serving institutions. The goal is to convene sponsored programs professionals and support their community of practice (CoP) engagement with the National Sponsored Programs Administrators Alliance of HBCUs Inc (NSPAA). Conference participants will contribute to the production of a statewide guidebook, a Standard Operating Procedures manual that each campus can customize for its use. NSPAA will support maintaining the CoP by offering an association for attendees to join at the conclusion of the conference. The outcomes of the conference include increased engagement with the expertise of NSPAA and tools organized by research enterprise classification (pre-award, post-award, and reporting services) that will strengthen the research enterprise at HBCUs. 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.