U.S. Senate wants more support for science at HBCUs

U.S. senate appropriators want the National Science Foundation to do more for faculty and students at the country’s historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). It is the latest attempt by Congress to push the National Science Foundation in that direction.

A 2015 spending bill now being debated by the full Senate contains three specific ways for the foundation to increase its support of HBCUs, 106 institutions that range from 2-year schools to research universities. In report language accompanying the bill, the legislators declare that:

– HBCUs should receive “no fewer than three” of the 15 awards that the foundation plans to make next year under one component of its Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program that teaches faculty how to commercialize their discoveries;

– The foundation should carve out US$7.5 million from existing minority activities for a program aimed at attracting students into the life sciences;

– The foundation should form a “high-level” advisory panel that will suggest ways to increase opportunities for HBCU faculty to obtain grants from the agency’s 6 research directorates.

Read more: Science/AAAS