Forum on Emerging Research Institutions

Emerging research institutions (ERIs) have an outsized impact on STEM workforce development, disproportionately providing access to higher education for individuals from Rural, Indigenous, Black, and Hispanic communities and facilitating increased engagement in U.S. academic Research & Development (R&D). The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s Board on Higher Education and Workforce will convene representatives from an array of perspectives and facilitate a multisectoral approach to increasing engagement of Minority-Serving, Rural, and historically under-engaged institutions in U.S. academic R&D through federal programs. By enabling ongoing discussions, the Forum on Emerging Research Institutions will elucidate national efforts to increase the research and development capacity and engagement of ERIs in U.S. academic STEM research. The goals of the Forum on Emerging Research Institutions include improving the coordination of national efforts on behalf of ERIs, more fully incorporating the needs of both academic and industry partners in programs and policies, and providing a more effective framework for increasing engagement in the full breadth of federally funded R&D at ERIs and other historically under-resourced and underinvested institutions. The Forum will conduct its work through 3 primary mechanisms over 3 years: regular meetings for forum membership, a series of public-facing workshops, and freely available publications to disseminate discussion points and best practices identified by participating communities. The Forum will seek to address the systems used across federal agencies, industry, and institutions of higher education to increase research capacity, identify barriers and opportunities for ERI engagement, and elevate common threads in policy, program design, and practice that promote sustainable research infrastructure growth for underinvested and underutilized institutions. By dissecting the various programs and initiatives being used nationally, Forum members, ERIs, and other interested communities will be able to leverage existing structures, better coordinate interventions, and accelerate the capacity of ERIs to participate meaningfully in U.S. R&D. 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.