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ADVANCE PROGRAM OVERVIEW
ADVANCE is a National Science Foundation (NSF) program. The
purpose of the program is to enhance the participation of women
in the scientific and engineering workforce by increasing the
representation and advancement of women in academic science
and engineering careers. To this end, the ADVANCE program administers
three funding opportunities that provide grants to both individuals
and institutions. The three types of awards are: Fellows Awards,
Institutional Transformation Awards, and Leadership Awards.
With each of the three types of ADVANCE awards, NSF seeks to
support new approaches to improving the climate for women in
U.S. academic institutions and to facilitate women's advancement
to the highest ranks of academic leadership. Creative approaches
to realize the goal of this program are sought from men and
women of all racial and ethnic backgrounds.
The following is a brief description of the three types of ADVANCE
awards.
A. Fellows Awards
The career development and advancement of scientists and engineers
can be limited by various factors. Women particularly may experience
career advancement limitations because of child-rearing or eldercare
responsibilities, the relocation of a spouse, or extended postdoctoral
status. Fellows Awards are intended to serve individuals who
experience such career limitations and who demonstrate high
potential to develop or resume active, full-time, independent
academic careers at institutions of higher learning in a science
or engineering field supported by NSF.
B. Leadership Awards
Leadership Awards recognize and encourage outstanding contributions
with widespread impact on increasing the participation and advancement
of women in academic science and engineering careers. The organization
and implementation of activities with significant impact on
increasing women's full representation and advancement in science
and engineering can be time-consuming and unheralded work. With
these awards, the efforts of individuals, small groups and organizations
such as professional societies are recognized and supported
as exhibiting leadership in advancing the diversity of the academic
science and engineering workforce. Awards will enable awardees
to sustain, intensify, and initiate new activities designed
to increase the participation and advancement of women scientists
and engineers in academe.
In general, Leadership Awards will support work that has systemic
impact. Leadership in meeting the challenges of increasing the
number of women in science and engineering takes many forms,
including for example, development and implementation of new
strategies and programs that enable women with advanced degrees
or equivalent training to establish successful academic careers
and advance into positions of academic leadership; programs
to encourage the adoption of best practices for advancing faculty
development among women in science or engineering, or programs
for mentoring scientists through to senior professorships and
senior academic administrative and leadership positions.
C. Institutional Transformation Awards
Despite some progress toward realizing gender-neutral attitudes,
policies, and practices in academe, women scientists and engineers
continue to be significantly underrepresented in some science
and engineering fields and proportionately under-advanced in
science and engineering in general in the Nation's colleges
and universities. There is increasing recognition that the lack
of women's full participation at the senior level of academe
is often a systemic consequence of academic culture.
Institutional Transformation Awards provide flexibility to institutions
to define and implement effective approaches to increase the
participation and advancement of women faculty members into
the senior and leadership ranks of science and engineering,
and to implement the changes necessary to institutionalize those
approaches through changes to institutional policies and practices.
By supporting the groundwork necessary to transform institutional
practices systemically, the Institutional Transformation Awards
seek to create positive, sustainable, and permanent change in
academic climates.
These awards are designed to support several stages of institutional
transformation, including data collection, analysis, and self-study
necessary to clarify the problems and define solutions; and
implementation of initiatives that bring about sustainable organizational
change contributing to the advancement of women in science and
engineering.
For further information on the ADVANCE program see: http://www.nsf.gov/home/crssprgm/advance/.
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 visitors since February 1, 2007.
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CONTACT
INFORMATION
Latonia Payne | E-mail: paynel@umich.edu | Phone: (734)
615-2602 | Fax: (734)
936-2195
University
of Michigan | School
of Natural Resources and Environment
Dana Building • 430 East University • Ann
Arbor, MI 48109-1115
(734)764-6453 |
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