Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP)

Overview

<p>Since AGEP began funding awards in 1998, it has been committed to the national goal of increasing the number of historically underrepresented minorities (URMs). The Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program seeks to advance knowledge about models to improve pathways to the professoriate and success for historically underrepresented minority doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty... in specific STEM disciplines and/or STEM education research fields. New and innovative models are encouraged, as are models that reproduce and/or replicate existing evidence-based alliances in significantly different disciplines, institutions, and participant cohorts. The program objectives include: To support the development, implementation and study of innovative models of doctoral education, postdoctoral training, and faculty advancement for historically underrepresented minorities in specific STEM disciplines and/or STEM education research fields; and to advance knowledge about the underlying issues, policies and practices that have an impact on the participation, transitions and advancement of historically underrepresented minorities in the STEM academy. Embedded social science and education research contributes to the knowledge base about how transformational models eliminate or mitigate negative factors and promote positive policies and practices for historically underrepresented minorities. The AGEP Transformation Alliance projects are collaborative research projects representing new strategic alliances of institutions and organizations to develop, implement, and study evidence-based models to transform doctoral education, postdoctoral training, and faculty advancement for historically underrepresented minorities in specific STEM disciplines and/or STEM education research fields. <br>Background: Advancing knowledge about new models of STEM doctoral education, postdoctoral training and faculty advancement, as well as knowledge about the underlying issues, policies and practices impacting the participation, transitions and advancement of URMs in the STEM academy, is aligned with recommendations and strategies identified in reports from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (2012), National Academy of Sciences (2011), and the Council of Graduate Schools (2015).</p>