Building while doing

A team of UC and CSU researchers is working to remove barriers and build research success among faculty at minority-serving institutions
 

Representation in research matters, from scientists performing significant studies to topics and fields of inquiry that funding agencies support. Yet diversity within the scientific workforce and the type of research supported remains relatively low. And that’s a problem, says UCI social sciences director of research development Holly Hapke.

“How a person understands and interprets something is done through a lens that’s shaped by their personal history and life experiences,” she says. “People with different experiences ask different questions, and people from different disciplines bring new interpretive insights to data. When there’s diversity within the scientific and research community, knowledge generation expands.”

With support from the National Science Foundation Build and Broaden program, Hapke is co-leading the California Alliance for Hispanic-Serving Social Science Advancement (CAHSSA), a team of UC and Cal State researchers who are taking a multidimensional approach to expanding the research enterprise for social and behavioral sciences across California’s public Hispanic-serving universities. CAHSSA will also be investigating potential biases within NSF’s proposal review process that may be working against social scientists at minority-serving institutions.

Joining Hapke in the effort are Barbara Endemaño Walker, Ph.D., director of strategic research initiatives and special assistant to the executive vice chancellor for diversity initiatives, UC Santa Barbara; Leslie Ponciano, Ph.D., director of research opportunities, Department of Research, CSU Chancellor’s Office; and Billy Wagner, Ph.D., MPH, professor of sociology and health sciences, CSU Channel Islands, and executive director, Social Science Research and Instructional Council of the CSU.

“The Build and Broaden program was launched because NSF recognizes the limited number of competitive grant submissions it receives from social and behavioral scientists at minority-serving institutions and thus, the limited number of awards it makes,” says Hapke who worked as a program officer with NSF before joining UCI. “Through CAHSSA, we’re hoping to increase extramural support and institutionalize best practices for social scientists pursuing important research at California’s public Hispanic-serving universities.”

Currently, 21 of Cal State’s 23 campuses and five of UC’s nine campuses are designated Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs)—where at least 25 percent of undergraduates identify as Latinx. UC’s four remaining undergraduate-serving campuses are emerging HSIs with 15-24 percent Latinx enrollment. (UCSF, the 10th campus, is a graduate and professional school only.) And with more than 4,500 social sciences faculty between the two systems, the opportunity for expanding research capacity is substantial.

To understand where best to focus efforts, CAHSSA affiliates put out a survey in 2022 to all UC and CSU social scientists. Results from more than 320 respondents helped the team target their first-year activities toward a series of virtual seminars and workshops on different aspects of grant writing, all of which are recorded and available online.

“Some of the survey results revealed demographic disparities along lines of gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation in terms of grant seeking and success,” says Wagner.

“Faculty also tend to be in agreement about some things that universities could do to improve grant writing and success, such as increased support for grant writing and also reduced bureaucracy around grant writing, submission, and administration.”

Walker agrees, adding: “It seems that there’s an assumption that you come to your faculty position and know how to apply for and successfully get a grant. But unless a campus has dedicated resources to helping faculty crack the code - and there is a specific code to follow in securing extramural funding—a professor could go their whole career without creating a winning proposal.”

Using words like “demoralizing” and “crushing,” some of the surveyed faculty pointed to their failed efforts to gain funding as reasons for never trying again.

“This is problematic because funding helps expand what you can do in terms of research and enrich the overall field, so this is definitely an important issue and their feedback helped us home in on solutions,” she says.

In addition to seminars and workshops, beginning this year, the CAHSSA team launched ten mentored writing groups for more than 60 interested faculty. Each group meets online twice a month with the first featuring a combination of instruction and information sharing around competitive proposal writing strategies. Then, at the next meeting, participants share what they’ve written and receive immediate feedback on in-progress proposals.

In April, CAHSSA hosted its first writing retreat for collaborative research teams. Nine teams from across the two systems met in-person and received mentored proposal writing support over three days of meetings and team science workshops. Participants also had the opportunity to meet one-on-one with an NSF program officer.

“We’re taking a building-while-doing approach,” says Hapke, “A good measure of success will be in our capacity building—seeing more social sciences faculty from UCs and CSUs submitting more funded proposals.”

They’ve also held two information sessions for academic leaders—vice chancellors, deans, department chairs and directors—where survey findings on barriers and needs have been shared. They also discussed strategies for expanding external funding and have plans to conduct additional sessions in the coming year on building the research enterprise within the social and behavioral sciences.

“Our hope is that campus leadership will see the importance that institutionalizing some of these practices can have and make these types of mentoring and collaboration opportunities a regular part of what we offer for our research enterprise in social sciences,” says Walker.

The final thrust of their multipronged approach will include a content analysis of NSF proposal reviews. Researchers will be looking for cues of implicit biases that may further explain funding inequities between disciplines and among awards given to faculty from minority-serving institutions.

An intended long-term outcome of CAHSSA would be to expand the capacity of social scientists to contribute to large interdisciplinary research projects and to enjoy greater equity alongside STEM counterparts and collaborators.

“I often say that if the solutions to our most pressing societal issues could be solved by a single discipline, then we would already know the answers. However, since that is not the case, it’s important for research to have an interdisciplinary approach to find the innovative solutions that exist in the gray areas between disciplines,” says Ponciano.

“STEM fields are more traditionally funded for their research and, yet, would greatly benefit from the contributions of those in the social sciences who understand how change related to research findings impact people. The CAHSSA program gives social scientists a platform for sharing their research ideas and builds their confidence and their recognition that their work is valuable.” 

 - Heather Ashbach, UCI Social Sciences