Call opens for proposals for the 2021 Women in STEM Awards

Proposals due April 19

The call is open for women faculty in UNM’s STEM fields to apply for a variety of grants as part of the 2021 Women In STEM awards. 

Awards range from $3,000 to $15,000 and three types of grants will be awarded through the program. They include travel awards to foster collaborations, seed awards to stimulate research projects that will lead to additional external funding, and workshop awards, which are designed to generate innovative research ideas and collaborations.

“It is an understatement to say that this has been a difficult year for everyone, and we know most faculty have had significant research setbacks because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope this year’s Women in STEM award opportunity can help the awardees with research and scholarship progress as pandemic restrictions decrease and women faculty are able to get back to doing more of the work they enjoy,” said Julia Fulghum, director of Advance at UNM, a National Science Foundation-funded project that recruits, retains and promotes women and minority faculty in STEM fields.

The awards are supported by an anonymous gift made in 2015 to UNM to support research by and professorships for women faculty in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The income from the investment on this gift will be used to help UNM women tenure-track and tenured assistant and associate STEM professors to establish new lines of research and to develop research collaborations. 

UNM Provost James Holloway said the awards celebrate the outstanding work done by women faculty members at the university.

“The contributions of our female faculty in creating new knowledge, in educating our students, and in serving our state are astounding.  I am pleased that we are able to express our gratitude by rewarding them with the 2021 Women in STEM awards.  Their continued dedication and commitment does not go unnoticed,” he said.

For the second year, research assistant and associate faculty are eligible to apply. Other eligible applicants include tenure-track and tenured women faculty members at UNM who hold the rank of assistant or associate professor and who are pursuing research in areas supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health (non-clinical) or the Department Of Energy.

Proposals are due April 19. Decisions will be announced by June 15, 2021. The period of award will be August 1, 2021 through Dec. 15, 2022. The Faculty Research Development Office (FRDO), in collaboration with ADVANCE at UNM, will manage the proposal submission and review process.

See the details of the call here.

Since 2016, 39 women in a variety of STEM fields across UNM have been named as recipients of the award. Recipients have done research in a variety of areas including biology, physics and political science. Read more about past winners here.