Proposals being accepted for the 2022 Women in STEM Awards

Proposals due May 2

The call is open for women STEM faculty at UNM to apply for a variety of grants as part of the 2022 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.

The awards are a collaboration between Advance at UNM, the Office of Academic Affairs and the Vice President for Research.

Advance Director Julia Fulghum encouraged women STEM faculty to apply, especially in the face of ongoing challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We know the pandemic continues to impact research progress and collaborative opportunities, particularly for women. These awards offer an opportunity to think about seed projects and small collaborations that can work towards larger efforts,” she said. “Remember that we have a broad definition of STEM. Please contact us if you want to know if your research qualifies.”

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. New this year is the availability of additional funding from the Office of the Vice President for Research to support collaborative seed research proposals. Those proposals should contribute to UNM’s Research Grand Challenges Initiative or contribute to research in one of the three emerging Strategic Research Areas. The areas are quantum science and technology; information/data science and arid climates.

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

“Despite the challenging times created by a global pandemic, our female faculty have continued to advance the frontiers of knowledge and to educate the next generation of scientists, humanists, social scientists, and creators.  The Women in STEM awards are a small token of our appreciation for all that these amazing scientists and engineers achieve,” he said.

UNM Vice President for Research Ellen Fisher said she’s looking forward to seeing this new type of proposal.

“I am extremely pleased to work with the ADVANCE at UNM program on the 2022 Women in STEM awards. In particular, this year we seek creative proposals that will further contribute to our efforts to expand research in emerging strategic focus areas important to UNM,” Fisher said.

For a third 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 May 2, 2022. Applicants can use this link in UNM’s InfoReady system to apply. Decisions will be announced by June 15. The period for the award will be August 1, 2022 through Dec. 15, 2023. The Faculty Research Development Office will manage the proposal submission and review process in collaboration with ADVANCE at UNM.

See the full details of the call here.

To date, 50 women at UNM have been recipients of Women in STEM Award funding. Read profiles of the winners and learn about their work here.

Read the call for proposals below: