Social Science Research Grants

The ADVANCE at WSU program periodically funds small grants to conduct social science projects aimed at generating publishable research on factors affecting the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women and historically underrepresented faculty in all disciplines. The overarching vision of ADVANCE at WSU is to develop an inclusive research institution whose faculty are supported by a system that promotes career-long excellence for all faculty. We recognize that to achieve this vision, we must address issues associated with things like career pipeline “leaks” (i.e., places where women and historically underrepresented faculty are lost from the institution), unsupportive climates, and implicit gender bias. Career transitions and points in the career pipeline where we face obstacles to recruiting, hiring, retaining, and advancing a diverse faculty represent priority areas.

The program goals are to:

1. Increase the representation of women and historically underrepresented faculty in all disciplines by providing institutional support through programs, policies, procedures, and climate change at critical points in the academic pipeline (e.g., recruitment, pre-tenure, and post-tenure advancement and leadership)
2. Develop and disseminate innovative strategies that can be applied in similar institutions – research-intensive, rural, land grant universities – as well as other academic and workplace settings more broadly
3. Put in place an infrastructure that gives these efforts the highest institutional support and visibility and allows for transformative efforts to continue at WSU.

The program’s three key initiatives are aimed at recruitment and retention efforts, targeting women and historically underrepresented faculty in all disciplines. One or more of these current initiatives should be broadly emphasized in the proposals:

• Work/Life Support Initiative, to facilitate greater integration of tenure-track faculty careers with their family and personal lives;
• Leadership Training Initiative, to identify and overcome barriers to advancement into leadership positions, especially post-tenure; and
• Institutionalizing Transformation Initiative, to assess institutional progress and disseminate best practices across WSU and to the broader academic community.

The research must have WSU tenure-line faculty and/or the policies, practices, and structures that affect retention/advancement as its primary foci.  Further, research must include STEMM disciplines, but STEMM does not need to be the primary/exclusive focus.

Click HERE for a full description of the program and guidelines

Questions and Proposal Submission:

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Previous Recipients:

• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009