Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Enriching Learning, Programs, and Student Experiences (HSI:ELPSE)

Overview

Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) are an important component of the nation's higher education ecosystem and play a critical role in realizing the National Science Board's vision for a more diverse and capable science and engineering workforce. 

Aligned with this vision and the NSF Strategic Plan, the goals of the NSF HSI Program are to:

• Enhance the quality of undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education at HSIs.
• Increase the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of students pursuing associates or baccalaureate degrees in STEM at HSIs.

Meeting these goals requires institutions to understand and embrace their students' strengths, challenges, and lived experiences. While this can happen in many ways and across many parts of an institution, the Hispanic Serving Institutions: Enriching Learning, Programs, and Student Experiences (HSI:ELPSE) solicitation is specifically focused on studying and improving the student experience in the following settings:

• STEM courses, particularly for students pursuing STEM degrees;
• Certificate, minor, and/or degree programs;
• Academic departments or divisions; and
• Schools and colleges that represent a part of the entire institution (e.g., a School of Engineering or a College of Natural Sciences).

Institutions are encouraged to consider how their mission and designation as an HSI could re-imagine and/or strengthen courses, degree programs, departments, or divisions. The HSI:ELPSE solicitation welcomes projects that look to implement, test and refine promising practices and/or conduct research related to broadening participation or improving recruitment, retention, graduation and other positive outcomes for undergraduates in STEM.

The HSI:ELPSE solicitation supports projects that are purposefully designed to meet students where they are, accounting for both their assets and the challenges they may face. Identities and experiences are not determined solely by membership in a single monolithic population of students (e.g., Hispanic, first-generation, commuter, etc.). Consequently, institutions are expected to use institutional data to identify equity gaps, identify areas of need, and unpack the factors that shape students' individual realities and shared experiences. Perspectives gained from these data should be central to the design of the project.

This solicitation includes the following tracks:

Implementation and Evaluation Projects (IEP): Levels 1 and 2
IEP Level 1: Up to 3 Years with a maximum budget of $500,000: Awards at this level will support early-stage or exploratory projects that look to enrich the student experience, improve teaching and learning, broaden participation in undergraduate STEM, or improve student outcomes at HSIs. While IEP Level 1 proposals should be evidence-based as discussed above, they may be more exploratory and would generally be of a smaller scale than IEP Level 2 proposals.

IEP Level 2: Up to 5 Years with a maximum budget of $1,000,000: Projects are supported for up to five years and should include efforts that are beyond the proof-of-concept stage and have potential to result in sustainable positive outcomes that align with the goals of the HSI program. Level 2 projects have a scale and scope beyond what would typically be expected for IEP Level 1 projects. Generally, proposals to the IEP track will center on one or more of the following: courses; curricular improvements; pedagogy; support structures inside and outside of the classroom; degree programs; and student pathways.

Educational Instrumentation (EI)
[NOTE: ASU is not eligible for this track, because ASU does not meet the PUI requirement/EPSCOR state locations.]

Implementation and Evaluation Proposals: Eligible institutions may submit up to a total of three IEP
proposals per solicitation deadline, regardless of level. An institution may, for example, submit three Level 1 IEP proposals, or one Level 1 IEP proposal and two Level 2 IEP proposals in the same deadline.

Implementation and Evaluation Projects proposals are limited submissions with an Internal Submission Deadline of Wednesday, November 20, 2024. InfoReady link: https://asu.infoready4.com/#freeformCompetitionDetail/1933478

IEP Level 1 awards
Project length: Up to three years
Award Size: $500,000

IEP Level 2 awards
Project length: Up to five years ;
Award Size: $1,000,000