Defense Research Capacity at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Other Minority Institutions Transitioning from Good Intentions to Measurable Outcomes (2022) / Chapter Skim
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5 Promising Practices and Challenges for Successfully Competing for DoD Research Funding and Workforce Development Support
5 Promising Practices and Challenges for Successfully Competing for DoD Research Funding and Workforce Development Support
Pages 109-132
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composed of three mutually enforcing areas: a strong institutional research grant and contract base, research faculty support, and ancillary services. These areas are critical for all institutions of higher education to effectively compete for research funding from the Department of Defense (DoD)
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. These aspects can make it difficult for researchers to rely on master'slevel and undergraduate students for accomplishing their research goals; are not necessarily designed to help institutions establish sustainable relationships with the DoD sponsor; and are limited in building the sustainable research capacities that are critical to an institution's long-term competitiveness.2 Recognizing that all institutions of higher education face challenges and stiff competition in acquiring and sustaining research support, the committee identified three areas showing gaps created or exacerbated by the relative lack of financial resources that HBCU/MIs have historically experienced: (1)
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research proposals identified the key barrier to be time available to prepare quality proposals, with release time from teaching the main 3 Committee's second public meeting, December 7, 2020. https://www.nationalacademies.org/ event/12-07-2020/defense-research-at-historically-black-colleges-and-universities-and-other-minority-institutions.
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https://www.nationalacademies.org/ event/12-07-2020/defense-research-at-historically-black-colleges-and-universities-and-other-minority-institutions. 6 Committee's third public meeting, February 16, 2021.
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Without understanding the HBCU/ MI context, DoD research sponsors may generalize HBCU/MIs as a category less capable of conducting research than non-HBCU/MI institutions. For this reason, several focus group participants perceived that DoD program officers, across military departments and defense agencies, often favor long-standing nonHBCU/MI partners with strong track records as performers, without considering the strengths that other applicants can offer (Essoka et al., 2021)
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They expressed openness for HBCU/MIs to reach out to DoD to make connections with the appropriate program officers. One DoD representative noted that institutions are clearly told that help with the submission process is available, yet the committee was unable to obtain clear information about the formal mechanism by which an individual institution can request DoD support beyond broadly contacting the HBCU/MI targeted program offices in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, the military departments, and defense agencies.
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To this end, there would be value in convening research sponsors, stakeholders, and other potential partners to provide input on the types of incentives beyond
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The committee identified a set of promising practices to support the transition of HBCU/MIs across the research spectrum. This transition, in turn, would build increasing levels of research experience, productivity, and capacity, and position a wider set of institutions of higher education to successfully compete for funding for and conduct defense research.
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FIGURE 5-1 University infrastructure conducive to high research capacities: Expanded committee framework.
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An Institution's Physical Research Facilities, Research Support Offices, and Personnel Institutional representatives from HBCU/MIs and non-HBCU/MIs stressed the importance of state-of-the-art facilities to conduct research and become more competitive for future opportunities. As a promising practice, several institutions that have successfully raised their research profile reported that key early investments in state-of-the-art facilities opened the door to a range of opportunities with DoD, other federal agencies, and industry.10 Likewise, they pointed to a well-functioning research support office that enables researchers to learn about funding opportunities, comply with standards for submitting quality proposals on time, and manage spending, invoicing, and reporting details accurately and effectively.
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, the author suggested promising practices to increase capacity for commercialization at HBCUs and, by extension, to MIs. These practices include awarding capacity-building grants to fund one or two staff members within an institution's office of sponsored research to focus on technology commercialization, convening workshops to develop institutional strategies, and increasing awareness of Small Business Technology Transfer/Small Business Innovation Research (STTR/SBIR)
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are all critical to its ability to reach and sustain high research capacity and attract and recruit research faculty. Lower Teaching Workloads As noted, there is a wide range of expectations for average faculty teaching workloads, and there are often variations in teaching workloads within the different schools/colleges of a given institution of higher education (Gasman, 2013)
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In the majority of cases, the committee found that active faculty researchers at HBCUs and MIs are handling most of their research administration and research execution details themselves, except when the salaries of program managers have been explicitly budgeted into their grants and contracts. Ancillary Services Ancillary services encompass effective human resource and legal affairs support, public relations teams, robust government relations teams, and effective institutional research foundations/structures.
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While publishing research deliverables in well-respected peer-reviewed journals helps advance research reputation within a focused professional community, coupling that knowledge dissemination vehicle with strong public relations further builds the institution's research reputation among relevant funders. Robust Government Relations Teams The solicitation-proposal "rules of engagement" differ among organizations, and, based on committee experience, the importance of leveraging reputation to build research relationships is relatively more complex when the relationshipbuilding is with DoD.
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DoD can also create and expand opportunities for faculty to sit on review boards or advisory boards with the understanding that when faculty have the appropriate support to accommodate low teaching workloads or release time for research pursuits, they are more likely to engage with these opportunities. In addition, there is potential in considering Intergovernment Personnel Act–like assignments for institutional researchers, expansion of pilot programs (e.g., LUCI)
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It is clear from the committee's findings that opportunities to build meaningful two-way relationships between HBCU/MIs and a broader array of DoD research offices are not only important but necessary to increase the representation of HBCU/MIs within the DoD network. Form True Partnerships with Other Institutions In focus groups, representatives of HBCU/MIs emphasized that the strongest partnerships are those characterized by mutual and shared recognition that "all partners bring something valuable to the table," including unique and diverse perspectives worthy of consideration.
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Different stakeholders have different roles to play in implementing the promising practices described above related to establishing a critical research infrastructure, increasing proactive communications and relationship-building efforts, forming true partnerships, and considering other agencies' programs. Figure 5-2 and the following may serve as a starting point.
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. Maximizing The MOSAIC program was developed to "facilitate the Opportunities transition of promising postdoctoral researchers from for Scientific diverse backgrounds." It offers an institutionally focused and Academic research education cooperative agreement and an individual Independent postdoctoral career transition award (K99/R00)
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(CREST) HBCU Research HBCU-RISE targets HBCUs to support the "expansion of Infrastructure institutional research capacity as well as the production for Science and of doctoral students, especially those from groups Engineering underrepresented in STEM" (NSF, 2017)
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. Department of Minority Serving MSIPP aims to establish a "sustainable pipeline" between Energy Institution the Department of Energy's sites and labs and minority Partnership serving institutions, supporting 24 consortium-based teams Program consisting of participants from select institutions (DOE, (MSIPP)
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. HBCU/MI Leadership HBCU/MI leadership can do the following: • Define research goals aligned with institutional and DoD priorities • Proactively shape partnerships to achieve prioritized goals • Develop true partnerships with non-HBCU/MIs, government/quasi-gov ernment entities and industry, as well other HBCU/MIs DoD Leadership DoD leadership can do the following: • Increase the consistent, coordinated engagement of HBCU/MIs in defense research, including regular outreach; early engagement in the structure, requirements, and focus of grant and contract funding opportunities; and support in grant and contract proposal development, administration, and management.
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2018. Motivations and paths to becoming faculty at minority serving institutions.
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Paper commissioned by the Committee on Defense Research at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Other Minority Serving Institutions. AIR (American Institutes for Research)
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2021. Enhancing Department of Defense engagements with historically black colleges and universities and other minority serving institutions.
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