Enhancing Doctoral Opportunities Through Inclusive Excellence

2024-25 Call for Proposals

Enhancing Doctoral Opportunities Through Inclusive Excellence

Program Overview

With thanks to support from the University of California Office of the President (UCOP), the Graduate Division is pleased to announce a second year of the Enhancing Doctoral Opportunities Through Inclusive Excellence program. We are now soliciting proposals from UC Merced Graduate Group Chairs and Senate faculty to further advance the program's goals.

This program aims to build connections between faculty colleagues at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), tribal colleges and universities (TCUs), and Native American serving non-tribal institutions (NASNTIs) with UC Merced faculty and graduate programs. Furthermore, the program aims to increase interest in and applications to UC Merced graduate programs by students at HBCUs, TCUs, and NASNTIs. Ultimately, the program should lead to an increase in enrolled graduate students who completed previous studies at HBCUs, TCUs, and NASNTIs. In support of this goal, Graduate Division seeks proposals from graduate groups and academic departments for faculty and student exchange programs, potential future applicant visits, and shared seminar series programs.

Project teams must identify a Principal Investigator (PI) and may include any number of Co-PIs. The PI and Co-PIs must be UC Merced Senate Faculty members, and at least one project team member must be a current Graduate Group Chair.

Each proposal must also identify at least one HBCU, TCU, and NASNTI partner department/campus. For each such partner campus, a lead faculty member at that institution must be identified.

Apply Now (Deadline 2/28/25)-->  https://forms.office.com/r/wtFtZQcaC3

Award Information and Expectations

• Proposals are due 11:59 PM on Friday, February 28, 2025. However, review of proposals may be carried out on a rolling basis.
• Award budgets have an upper limit of $40,000.
• Projects may be planned through December 31, 2025.
• Funded projects will require project summary reports by September 15, 2025 and January 31, 2026.

Eligible Expenditures

The proposed budget justification should clearly outline planned expenses. Most expenses supporting program goals will be allowed. Faculty and staff salary/stipend support is not allowed. Additionally, materials and related expenses directly supporting a faculty/PI led research program are not allowed.

Proposal Requirements

Proposals must be submitted online at https://forms.office.com/r/wtFtZQcaC3. The submission webform includes the PI/Co-PI team, other general project information, and file uploads for the proposal narrative and partner institution faculty sponsor commitment letter (vide infra).

Proposal submission requires separate uploads of a project narrative, budget summary and justification, and external institutional faculty lead letter of support.

The project narrative should be no more than two single-spaced pages using 1-inch margins and 11-point font. Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, or Calibri font should be used. The project narrative document should include a project title and list PI and Co-PIs, together with their graduate program affiliations. The project narrative must describe planned activities, address potential challenges, and state expected outcomes.

The budget summary and justification should articulate planned expenses and include explanation for how such expenses will advance the project goals and support program objectives.

The external institutional faculty lead letter of support should be prepared by the external faculty partner and submitted on their institutional letterhead. The text of the letter should be as follows:

“If the proposal submitted by Dr. [insert the full name of the Principal Investigator] entitled [insert the proposal title] is selected for funding, it is my intent to collaborate as detailed in the project narrative.”

Example Project Ideas

Below, a few example project ideas are provided. This list of examples is not exhaustive, and project teams are encouraged to propose creative ideas to advance the program’s goals.

• Example 1. Working with faculty partners at an eligible partner institution, a team develops a $35,000 project that sends a UC Merced professor and postdoc or graduate student separately to each of the partner campuses to give department seminars. The faculty partner also coordinates 3-5 faculty to come to UC Merced to give seminars on our campus. In each case, the visitors spend an extra day or two than a typical seminar visit would include. Each seminar speaker would also bring 1-3 additional students with them on their trip. During the additional visitation days, the visitors would have extra meetings with colleagues to explore possible future collaborations. Other meetings would be specifically for students to learn more about graduate school, faculty or staff jobs, or other opportunities at the other institution.
• Example 2. Together with faculty partners at an HBCU that the UC Merced team previously collaborated with on a UC-HBCU grant, a team develops a $30,000 proposal that provides for a “preview day” where the faculty partner comes to UC Merced in the spring with 8-10 undergraduate students interested in graduate studies. During a 2-3 day visit, the project team coordinates faculty, student, and facilities meetings for the visitors modeled after graduate visitations. All visiting undergraduate students are provided a UC Merced graduate application fee waiver by the host graduate program.
• Example 3. A group of UC Merced and HBCU faculty develop a $25,000 proposal to support a faculty and student gathering at a professional conference that most team members typically attend. The gathering provides an opportunity to plan future collaborative projects and build community. After the initial meeting with faculty and students, the project would support a one-week student/postdoc exchanges where UC Merced graduate students and/or postdocs travel to the HBCU partner institution and HBCU undergraduate or graduate students travel to UC Merced.