Ashland University Receives $587,997 National Science Foundation Grant

Ashland University has received a $587,997 grant from the National Science Foundation for a project titled, “Advanced Technological Education for 2 Year Colleges (ATE-2YC).” The three-year project starts April 1, 2018, and ends March 31, 2021.

“This award brings to more than $1.45 million that the National Science Foundation has invested in projects at Ashland University since the beginning of 2017," said Scott Savage, director of Foundation and Government Relations at AU and lead grant writer for the application to NSF.

The project, which is under the direction of AU Provost Dr. Eun-Woo Chang (Principal Investigator) and Kathleen A. Alfano, professor emeritus, College of the Canyons, proposes support to follow and build upon the writing workshop model used in the current Ashland University grant project funded by NSF, with the goal of helping two-year college faculty gain the knowledge and skills required to successfully obtain advanced technological education funding and in doing so create lasting institutional change.

“The key outcome of this project will be an increase in the number of competitive advanced technological education proposals submitted by two-year college faculty,” said Dr. Chang. “The project design addresses the barriers to participation in advanced technological education competitions faced by two-year college faculty and will address the low number of two-year college applicants and awards made from the program.”

According to Dr. Chang, the project proposal writing component and mentoring by experienced principal investigators will increase the knowledge and skills of the two-year college STEM faculty at institutions that currently have minimal grant activity, thereby strengthening the personal and institutional ability to pursue proposal based projects.

“Participants will learn strategies for institutional investment in pursuit of NSF program grant funding through a series of post-workshop monthly webinars. Project participants also will be better prepared to serve as panelists for NSF proposal review, thereby increasing the number of proficient reviewers,” he said. “The large number of recruited institutions for the two workshops (2018 and 2019) and mentoring by experienced principal investigators – a total of 100 participating two-year college STEM faculty and 50 institutions -- will have a positive impact on the quality of STEM education for a great number of students at awarded at two-year colleges.”

Dr. Chang said the project will lead to an increase in the collaboration between two-year and four-year colleges as well, benefiting faculty and students at both types of institutions through improved student transfer success, aid in developing articulation agreements and increased sharing of resources between institutions.

“Workshop participants will serve as change makers for their institutions with the innovative ideas and teaching pedagogies developed in their mentored projects,” he said. “For two-year colleges awarded ATE grants, this project will result in improved students’ access to education and acquisition of skills needed to enter the workforce as competent STEM graduates whose contributions will advance the nation’s economy.”


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