NAASC is committed to increasing participation at the ICAR by US under-represented minorities (URM) and faculty from minority-serving institutions.
- 1.We have initiated a new program for 2014 specifically to address key concerns of US URMs.
- 2.Depending on the outcome of a funding proposal submitted to the US National Science Foundation (NSF), NAASC will provide up to 10 URM awards to support full participation in the 25th ICAR. See application, provided below, for full eligibility and selection details. Applications due: April 7, 2014.
1. US Under-Represented Minority (URM) workshops: NAASC recently formed a Minority Affairs Committee (MAC) to focus on relevant issues to under-represented minority scientists and faculty at minority-serving institutions in the US, such as a lack of support networks for minority PIs, a leaky pipeline of minority talent and a lack of URM-directed initiatives. For ICAR 2014, our new program has these objectives: to (1) identify networking contacts from within the Arabidopsis community (2) to develop a strong cohort and facilitate of communication amongst the cohort (3) hold workshops dedicated to the experience of science from the perspective of three URM scientists at various career levels and (4) gain experience with essential skills including career options in science, funding opportunities and presenting themselves and their work well, as well as workshops from successful pre-tenure and established scientists as described in the Early Career Researcher workshops above.
- US URMs and faculty at minority-serving institutions at all career stages will benefit from the URM workshop program, which will include an overlapping session with early-career researcher participants (described further on the ‘career development’ page). Additional focused sessions will be held for URM subgroups based on career stage, separate from ECRs.
- Workshop Program Development: The actual program of the URM workshops will be developed based on survey as part of the URM funding application AND feedback from interested attendees. Participants will be recruited via the registration form; those that indicate an interest in the URM program will be contacted to complete a brief online survey and they will be asked whether they would like their names and email addresses to be available to other URMs before the meeting to establish cohorts.
- Attendance at workshops and networking events are required for minority awardees and will be open to others (including interested non-minorities) as space allows. Priority will be given to those that indicate interest via the registration form and brief survey. We expect to accommodate up to 100 participants.
- Eligibility: open to participants from all countries, however note the working definition of ‘Under-Represented Minority’ in science used is that of the United States National Science Foundation (NSF); those groups are the focus of these workshops. URMs include African Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders.
- Date: Monday, July 28; workshops expected to run 1:15-4 pm followed by informal networking 4-6 pm prior to the opening sessions (minority awardees have an additional session from 4-5 pm).
2. Funding Opportunity for US Under-Represented Minorities (URM) and faculty from US Minority-Serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and 1890 Institutions
The meeting organizers, the North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee (NAASC), has applied to the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) for funding to aid plant biology students and scientists from U.S. institutions that are members of under-represented minority groups and/or faculty from federally-designated U.S. Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI) Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), and 1890 Institutions (http://www.aplu.org/page.aspx?pid=1074). Depending on funding, NAASC will provide up to 10 awards to support full participation in the 25th ICAR. On behalf of the entire community, we thank the NSF for their generous continuing support.
- Please carefully read the eligibility and selection criteria in the URM funding application, downloadable as a Microsoft Word document or an Adobe PDF document.
- Submission deadline for all applications is April 7, 2014.
- You must receive an email acknowledgement that your application was received to ensure consideration of your application.
25th ICAR US URM Application WORD Doc
25th ICAR US URM Application PDF
