By Kenneth Mullinax/ASU
Alabama State University will host a National Science Foundation (NSF) regional workshop for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and for faculty from two-year community colleges with majority Black enrollment, located in three Southern states. The event, titled as the "HBCU EPSCOR Regional Outreach" (H.E.R.O.) program, is designed to promote and enhance grants and the flow of scientific information in such areas as biology engineering and geosciences.
Dr. Robert L. Green, chairman of Alabama State University's department of Physical and Forensic Sciences, explained that the day-and-a-half event will take place on February 29 - March 1, and will be held in the University's J. Garrick Hardy Student Center ballroom and theater, which is located on the building’s second floor.
"We are proud that ASU has been asked by the National Science Foundation to sponsor its intensive regional workshop that is designed for representatives from HBCUs and two-year institutions of higher education within the states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana; so they may gain better insight regarding the grant application process to the NSF," Green stated. "Those attending will have direct access to NSF program officers who may be beneficial to their schools in obtaining grants and programs that benefit its faculty and students."
Sessions at the workshop will be dedicated to administrators, sponsored research officers, and faculty researchers with discussions centered on strategies to make grant applications more competitive and successful for their respective institutions of higher learning. A special session will be dedicated to institutions that are new to the National Science Foundation's programs and are interested in acquiring funding from this acclaimed national organization.
Green shared that hosting the workshop is yet another example of Alabama State University exhibiting leadership among its peers in science-related research funding and in advancing NSF’s goal of increasing programs and opportunities for minority serving institutions and their scholars.
"ASU is hosting this important regional event to increase the number of competitive programs to the NSF for HBCUs, especially as it relates to the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCOR), which will ultimately help increase diversity and inclusiveness for Black schools, scholars and students," stated Green.
ASU's faculty and staff who are organizing the workshop believe it is important for the University to host this event for majority Black institutions of higher education to help to ensure that more scientific collaborations occur with the goal of increasing funded research among the schools attending the workshop.
"This especially benefits students at ASU and the other schools attending because by increasing the NSF funding for their individual college or university, via grants and programs, allows ASU and other school's students to participate in cutting-edge programs that will give them more resources and opportunities, which will make them more marketable to be admitted into good graduate programs and increase their career advancement potential," stated ASU's Forensic chairman. "None of this would have happened for ASU had it not been for both the intellectual leadership of Dr. Audrey Napier (dean of C-STEM), and the hard work of ASU's Dr. Kennedy Wekesa, Latonia Harris, Whitney Coleman and Juanita Felder."