Broadening Participation Research Initiation Grants in Engineering

To address the need to enhance diversity in its programs, the Directorate for Engineering (ENG) at the National Science Foundation is offering research initiation grants under the program name Broadening Participation Research Initiation Grants in Engineering, BRIGE. ENG offers this BRIGE funding opportunity to all beginning engineers with the intent of increasing the diversity of researchers in the engineering disciplines. The goal of the BRIGE solicitation is to increase the number of proposals to the Directorate for Engineering from individuals who can serve as role models and mentors for an increasingly diverse engineering student population who will become the workforce of the future. BRIGE aims to support innovative research and diversity plans that contribute to recruiting and retaining a broad representation of engineering researchers especially those subgroups that are underrepresented in the engineering population in programs supported by these grants. Throughout this solicitation, the term underrepresented groups will refer to and include the following: women, persons with disabilities, and ethnic groups which are in the minority in engineering such as African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Pacific Islanders.