On May 22, 2019, the UMass ADVANCE Program held an Information workshop on the new Collaborative Research Seed Grant program which seeks to foster the development of innovative and equitable collaborative research projects among UMass Amherst faculty. Funded seed grants at UMass will contribute to the mission of the National Science Foundation ADVANCE program, which is advancing women faculty, including women faculty of color, in science and engineering.

The seed grant application deadline is September 17, 2019.

The Institute for Social Science Research and the School of Earth and Sustainability, in partnership with the Institute for Diversity Sciences at UMass, are pleased to announce the winners of this year's Social Science and Environment Seed Grant competition. These SSEN Seed Grant awards totaling $40,000 in new investments will stimulate new scholarly collaborations for innovative research centered on sustainability themes in the social sciences. The winning grants link scholars across three colleges at UMass, and exemplify the SSEN commitment to spanning disciplinary boundaries to open new ways of conceptualizing and studying the defining issues of our times. Please join us in celebrating these important initiatives.

Joya Misra, Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, has been appointed Director of the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) in the UMass College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS), for a three-year term effective September 1, 2019. Misra succeeds Laurel Smith-Doerr, who has served as Director of ISSR since 2012, building it into a vibrant center for promoting excellence in social science research. Join us in congratulating them for their leadership and service to excellence in the social sciences across UMass.

This July, a new proposal and award management system, Kuali Research, will replace SmartGrant for proposal submissions and award management, and replace e-Protocol for human (IRB) and animal (IACUC) subjects, as well as provide a new online disclosure process for Conflicts of Interest. 

On February 8, 2019, John N. Parker facilitated the first UMass ADVANCE Research Collaboration workshop with an engaging talk on how collaboration and equity leads to better science. Parker is Program Officer for the Science, Technology and Society and Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM programs at the National Science Foundation. He is also Senior Sustainability Scientist, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability and Senior Fellow, Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University.

We are excited to announce that Ashley Carpenter, who recently defended her doctoral dissertation in Higher Education Administration, has been selected as the first student speaker in the history of Graduate Commencement! Ashley has been an invaluable member of the ISSR Methodology Consulting team, sharing her expertise in qualitative methods through one-on-one consultations and workshops on qualitative interviewing and analysis with NVivo.