Broadening Participation in Engineering | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The National Science Foundation's Broadening Participation in Engineering (BPE) program (Funding Opportunity Number PD 16 7680) is a Directorate-wide initiative focused on strengthening the engineering workforce by expanding diversity and improving preparation for groups that have been historically underrepresented in engineering. The program treats broadening participation as a full pipeline challenge, emphasizing interventions and research across key educational stages, including elementary, secondary, and postsecondary levels. At its core, BPE aims to increase engineering interest, readiness, connections, lived experiences, and access to opportunities for underrepresented populations, with the larger goal of building a workforce that is both more inclusive and better prepared.

For FY 2016, BPE aligns with NSF's INCLUDES emphasis on building collaborative, networked approaches to inclusion. Rather than isolated efforts, BPE encourages projects that bring together multiple partners such as school districts, community colleges, four-year engineering programs, industry, philanthropic organizations, and government entities. The idea is to fund work with a strong return on investment, meaning efforts that can scale beyond a single institution, sustain themselves after the grant period, and translate to different contexts, communities, and demographic groups across the broader engineering enterprise. This makes partnership design and a credible plan for long-term adoption central features of competitive proposals.

BPE supports two major types of work: research projects and demonstration projects. On the research side, the program is interested in studies that help explain why engineering participation remains low or difficult to sustain for underrepresented groups and what factors most strongly influence persistence. Priority research topics include understanding insufficient interest and weak retention in engineering pathways; gaps in academic preparation and limited opportunities to engage with meaningful and relevant engineering or STEM content; lack of access to support systems and social networks that build awareness of engineering careers and pathways; and structural inequities and biases embedded in educational and workforce systems that may shape who persists and who leaves. In other words, BPE is not only looking for projects that deliver services, but also for work that produces clearer evidence about the underlying causes of underrepresentation and the mechanisms that can change outcomes.

Alongside research, BPE is equally interested in demonstration projects, particularly those addressing diversity within the engineering professoriate. For FY 2016 the program notes a specific interest in efforts that focus on racial and ethnic minorities in the faculty pipeline. These projects are expected to be grounded in current theoretical and empirical literature on underrepresentation and to contribute new knowledge to the field, not just implement common practices. Examples of the kinds of strategies BPE suggests include professoriate preparation programs for graduate students, structured postdoctoral programs designed to strengthen transitions into faculty roles, and mentoring or support programs for early-career faculty. Importantly, the opportunity recognizes that both two-year and four-year institutions can play meaningful roles and are likely to have one or more demographic groups for whom tailored strategies could improve representation.

A strong proposal in this program is expected to be data-informed and outcomes-driven. Applicants should justify the selection of the targeted population(s) using appropriate data, lay out clear and specific objectives, show awareness of the relevant research literature, and present a coherent strategy for improving representation. Demonstration projects, in particular, must include assessment and evaluation plans that can credibly measure progress toward stated goals as part of the project management approach. The quality and rigor of the evaluation is framed as part of the project's intellectual merit, meaning it can directly influence how the proposal is judged. Proposals should also identify measurable outcomes and address how the approach could function across different institutional environments, reflecting the program's emphasis on scalability and transferability.

In terms of logistics, the opportunity is offered as a discretionary NSF grant within the Science and Technology and other Research and Development activity category, with CFDA numbers 47.041. Eligibility is described as unrestricted, meaning any entity may apply unless further limitations are stated elsewhere in the solicitation materials. The original and current closing date listed for this specific opportunity was June 16, 2016, and the posting and creation dates were March 26, 2016. The opportunity anticipated around 20 awards, while an award ceiling was not specified in the provided data.

Finally, BPE strongly encourages prospective principal investigators to contact the program director before submission to confirm fit with BPE's strategic priorities. The solicitation also recommends submitting by the full proposal target date to ensure full consideration for funding in the relevant fiscal year. This emphasis on early communication signals that alignment with program goals, partner networks, and evaluation rigor are likely to be decisive factors in proposal competitiveness.

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