Call for Applications: InnovATEBIO Undergraduate Research Partners

In October 2019, InnovATEBIO (NSF DUE 1901984), was designated the National Biotechnology Education Center for the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF). The center works with two-year colleges throughout the US to develop workforce to support the biotechnical enterprise. A key element of workforce preparation is hands-on experiences, such as those provided through undergraduate research experiences (URE). To support the development of URE in biotechnology programs, InnovATEBIO is inviting colleges with an interest in the development or expansion of URE in biotechnology to apply to become an InnovATEBIO undergraduate research institutional partner.

InnovATEBIO undergraduate research institutional partners receive:

• Support for a team from your institution to attend our strategic planning workshop.
• Funding for start-up URE supplies.
• Access to InnovATEBIO sponsored faculty development opportunities.
• Summary data from evaluation surveys.
• URE program and curriculum development support.
• Access to network wide research projects.
• Support for connecting your program to a National network of faculty, students, and administrators at community colleges engaged in URE.
• Support in connecting colleges to industry to source URE projects.

Application eligibility:

• Must commit to assembling a “URE team” from your institution. Your team may have up to 4 faculty (with at least one faculty from biotechnology) and any external collaborators. In addition, your team MUST have 1 college administrator (VP, Provost, Dean).
• Your URE team must be from a 2-year college in the United States
• All team members must commit to attending all parts of the initial strategic planning workshop (details below).
• All teams must join InnovATEBIO on behalf of their institution (membership is free).

Applications to become an InnovATEBIO undergraduate research institutional partner will be accepted through March 1, 2021. Apply here: https://forms.gle/xa3eRPExe8wtK3tJ8

If selected as a partner, your URE team will be required to attend a “kick-off” strategic planning workshop. This workshop will be held virtually in Spring 2021 and will guide participating colleges through a model of URE implementation developed through the Community College Undergraduate Research Initiative (NSF DUE #1524353). The workshop will educate faculty on best practices of URE implementation and highlight existing research occurring in community college biotechnology programs.

Expectations of InnovATEBIO Undergraduate Research Experience (URE) Partners:

1.  Develop and implement the URE plan developed during the URE workshop.

• It is expected that this plan will grow and evolve as it is implemented, you are not “tied” to what you developed at the workshop, but we do expect UR to be implemented at some level within the first 2 years of partnership with InnovATEBIO.

2.  Complete evaluation requests from InnovATEBIO:

• Post-workshop survey
• Annual professional development follow-up survey
• Annual student follow-up survey
• Institutional research data requests
• Additional surveys/data collection as requested

3.  Designate one faculty member to serve as the InnovATEBIO URE point of contact.

• Serve as the primary point of contact for the development and implementation of URE
• Compile and send supply requests to InnovATEBIO
• Coordinate faculty/student participation in InnovATEBIO conferences/workshops
• Complete InnovATEBIO evaluation activities as requested
• Be an advocate of UR on home campus and to external collaborators