Tribal Colleges and Universities Program

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The Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) provides awards to Tribal Colleges and Universities, Alaska Native-serving institutions, and Native Hawaiian-serving institutions to promote high quality science (including sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics, statistics, and other social and behavioral science as well as natural science and education disciplines), technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, research, and outreach. Support is available to TCUP-eligible institutions (see the Additional Eligibility subsection of Section IV of this solicitation) for Instructional Capacity Excellence in TCUP Institutions (ICE-TI), Targeted STEM Infusion Projects (TSIP), PArtnerships for Geoscience Education (PAGE), Broadening Participation Research in STEM Education (BPR), Small Grants for Research (SGR), and Preparing for TCUP Implementation (Pre-TI). Through these mechanisms, along with collaborations with other National Science Foundation (NSF) units and its work with other organizations, TCUP aims to increase Native individuals' participation in STEM careers and the quality of STEM programs at TCUP-eligible institutions. TCUP strongly encourages the inclusion of activities that will benefit veterans. Instructional Capacity Excellence in TCUP Institutions (ICE-TI) projects provide support to design, implement and assess comprehensive institutional improvements in the STEM instructional and research capacity in TCUP-eligible institutions of higher education. Successful projects are transformative in their approaches to increasing the numbers of STEM students and the quality of their preparation by strengthening STEM education and research. ICE-TI Projects create and/or adapt and assess innovative models and materials for teaching and learning in STEM, embody knowledge about how students learn most effectively in STEM teaching and learning activities, and bring STEM disciplinary advances into the undergraduate experience. Targeted STEM Infusion Projects (TSIP) provide support toward achieving a short-term, well-defined goal that promises to improve the quality of undergraduate STEM education at an eligible institution. Targeted STEM Infusion Projects could, for example, enhance academic infrastructure by systematically adding traditional knowledge to the scope or content of a STEM course, updating curriculum, modernizing laboratory research equipment, or improving the computational network array for research and education. PArtnerships for Geoscience Education (PAGE) provides support for collaborations that will improve TCUP institutions' instructional capacity in geosciences; attract, retain, and support TCUP students in internships and research endeavors deemed to be necessary for a complete curriculum offering; and the engagement of partner universities to provide an academic grounding and a successful transition for students who wish to study or attain degrees in geosciences. Broadening Participation Research in STEM Education (BPR) provides support for research projects that seek to create and study new models and innovations in STEM teaching and learning, enhance the understanding of the participation of diverse groups in STEM education and inform education practices and interventions.  BPR projects add new research-based strategies and models to broadening participation in STEM and increase the capacity of scholars in TCUP-eligible institutions to conduct this type of research. Small Grants for Research (SGR) projects provide support for faculty members in STEM areas at TCUP-eligible institutions to initiate or pursue research projects or programs appropriate for undergraduate student engagement. Awards are intended to help further the faculty member's research capability and effectiveness, to improve research and teaching at his or her home institution, and to involve undergraduate students in research experiences. These awards are particularly appropriate as a means of recruiting and retaining highly qualified scientists, engineers, and educators at TCUP-eligible institutions. Preparing for TCUP Implementation (Pre-TI) projects support development-level activities that can ground an institution's readiness for Implementation-level projects, such as an institutional assessment of its current STEM instructional capacity, or the conversations necessary to formulate a shared vision of what that capacity should be and how to achieve it. Provided specifically for those TCUP-eligible institutions of higher education that have never received a TCUP Implementation-level award, Pre-TI grants can support staff and faculty release time, travel, stakeholder gatherings, and associated administrative costs.