Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate | 21 576

Opportunity Information: Apply for 21 576

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program is a discretionary grant opportunity designed to strengthen the U.S. research and academic workforce by improving equity and increasing the number of historically underrepresented minority faculty in STEM. The program builds on prior AGEP efforts and on broader research about racial and ethnic equity to support systemic, evidence-based changes in higher education that help people progress along academic career pathways, from doctoral training through postdoctoral appointments and into faculty roles. AGEP is focused on addressing structural and cultural barriers inside institutions that can shape hiring, retention, promotion, and overall professional advancement, with the idea that lasting improvements require changing policies, practices, and workplace climates rather than relying only on individual-level support.

AGEP defines its primary populations (often called the "AGEP populations" in the solicitation) as STEM doctoral candidates, postdoctoral scholars, and faculty who are African American, Hispanic American, American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Native Pacific Islander. At the graduate level, the emphasis is specifically on doctoral candidates, since they are the most likely to enter faculty positions within the timeframe of a typical funded project. The solicitation also makes clear that AGEP covers the STEM fields supported by NSF, including the learning, social, behavioral, and economic sciences, but it does not support clinical science fields. A major theme throughout the opportunity is that improving inclusion and equity in faculty careers is tied to broader national goals, including educating the future STEM workforce and supporting a strong economy, and it aligns with larger NSF and National Science Board priorities such as Vision 2030.

A central feature of AGEP is its emphasis on systemic and institutional change. The program is explicitly concerned with how inequities can be embedded in departmental and institutional routines, such as uneven service and teaching loads that reduce research time, biased evaluation practices that affect tenure and promotion outcomes, and policies that fail to counteract implicit bias in hiring and advancement decisions. AGEP projects are expected to identify and mitigate these kinds of barriers by using data, evidence-based interventions, and accountability mechanisms that reshape how institutions operate. Rather than treating inequity as an individual problem, AGEP encourages projects that treat it as an organizational issue that can be measured, understood, and corrected.

The program is structured around Alliances, meaning proposals are expected to be collaborative efforts among institutions of higher education (IHEs). These partner institutions must be similar to one another using characteristics such as Carnegie classification, geographic location, and student and/or faculty demographics, and they are expected to work jointly on change strategies. Proposals are also expected to use an intersectional approach, meaning they should consider how multiple dimensions of identity and experience can interact with institutional structures to shape outcomes, and they should incorporate that lens into project design, implementation, and evaluation.

The solicitation offers three funding tracks, all aligned to the same overall goal but aimed at different stages and models of institutional change. The AGEP Institutional Transformation Alliance (ITA) track supports the development, implementation, and evaluation of innovative, systemic change strategies intended to produce permanent policy and practice changes across similar institutions. ITA projects are expected to result in changes that persist after NSF funding ends, emphasizing sustainability and institutionalization. This track has additional submission requirements: a preliminary proposal is required, and at least one submitting institution must have current or prior experience as an AGEP Catalyst Alliance. Importantly, the institutions listed in the preliminary ITA submission must be the same collaborating institutions that would appear in the invited full proposal.

The AGEP Faculty Career Pathways Alliance Model (FC-PAM) track supports the creation and institutionalization of alliance-based models that advance AGEP populations along faculty career pathways, with an explicit requirement that alliance partners study their own formation and functioning. That self-study includes examining socio-cultural, economic, structural, leadership, and institutional variables that influence both the alliance itself and the effectiveness of the interventions used to support AGEP populations. For this track, a Letter of Intent (LOI) is required for teams planning to submit an FC-PAM collaborative proposal, and only one LOI is needed per collaborating group. The solicitation also notes that FC-PAM was time-limited, available only in FY2021 and FY2022, and then discontinued.

The AGEP Catalyst Alliance (ACA) track functions as a foundational or facilitator pathway for institutions that need to build the groundwork for larger transformation efforts. ACA awards support organizational self-assessments to gather and analyze data that reveal inequities affecting AGEP populations, pilot equity strategies when appropriate, and develop a five-year equity strategic plan focused on improving outcomes for these populations. In practice, the ACA track is positioned as a stepping stone toward an eventual ITA-level effort, helping institutions develop the diagnosis, data capacity, and strategic planning needed for deeper and broader institutional transformation.

From the funding opportunity details provided, the opportunity is listed as NSF Funding Opportunity Number 21-576 under CFDA 47.076, categorized under Science and Technology and other Research and Development, with grants as the funding instrument. The award ceiling is listed as $4,400,000, with an expected 32 awards. The original closing date referenced is August 17, 2021, and it specifies that AGEP Catalyst Alliance proposals were due then, while ITA full proposals require having first submitted a preliminary proposal. Eligibility is noted broadly as "Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification)," but the program description makes clear that the core applicants are collaborative teams of similar IHEs forming an Alliance and proposing institution-level change strategies aimed at improving equity and increasing representation of AGEP populations in STEM faculty roles.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.076.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 26, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 17, 2021 AGEP Catalyst Alliance proposals. Preliminary proposals are only required for institutions of higher education that want to submit a full AGEP Institutional Transformation Alliance proposal. AGEP Institutional Transformation Alliance proposals. A preliminary proposal must have first been submitted.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $4,400,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 32 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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