The
CIRE activity was intended to establish long-term research and education
relationships between minority-serving institutions and NSF-supported
facilities and centers. The long-term objective was to formalize
and institutionalize these developing relationships by negotiating
formal institution-to-institution agreements for continuation and
support of the relationships.
CIRE proposals were allowed to request support for a maximum period
of 3 years, to be funded at a maximum of $500,000 per year. Institutions
were expected to provide reasonable assurances that the efforts
and activities generated through CIRE would continue at a comparable
level following conclusion of NSF funding of the award.
CIRE proposals were expected to be in compliance with all applicable
equal opportunity laws and existing institutional policies. CIRE
awards were expected to achieve significant increases in the number
and quality of interactions between participants from the NSF-supported
facility or center, and faculty and students at the minority-serving
institution, and result in increasing graduate SEM degrees for underrepresented
minorities, and networking and the dissemination of new knowledge.
In general, support was provided for activities that facilitate
development of formal long-term research and education relationships
between NSF-supported facilities and centers, and minority-serving
institutions, by funding collaborative activities. Funded activities
might have include (among others) development of collaborative and
mutually beneficial research and education projects, and exchanges
of faculty and students. The former could have included infrastructure
enhancements at the minority-serving institution, if needed to support
the proposed collaborative activity. It should be noted that, CIRE
was not a general infrastructure program for minority-serving institutions.
Proposals had to clearly identify and address any administrative,
education and research infrastructure changes needed to achieve
CIRE objectives.
Pre-college and bridging programs were not eligible for CIRE support.
Undergraduate students, graduate students, and well-prepared high
school students could have been part of the proposed activity.
CIRE proposals had to be submitted by Minority-Serving Institutions
(MSIs), including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs),
Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs), and Tribally-Controlled Colleges
(TCCs). Each CIRE proposal had to be submitted in collaboration
with (and include a subcontract to) one or more NSF-supported facilities/centers
or similar NSF-supported efforts.
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