Grant from the John Templeton Foundation will support and enhance scientific research on CCCU campuses
The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) and Scholarship & Christianity in Oxford (SCIO), the CCCU’s U.K. subsidiary, have received a $2.1 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to launch Supporting Structures, a project designed to support and enhance STEM research among faculty and students on CCCU campuses.
This multi-faceted project will incorporate training, support, and events for faculty members, students, senior administrators, and the communities that feed into and support these institutions. It will expand research opportunities among existing, pre-tenure faculty members in the STEM fields and offer training to deepen their understanding of and engagement with issues pertaining to science, religion, and society. Additionally, the project has a specific fund dedicated to help participating campuses enhance diversity among their STEM faculty.
Not only will this project provide campuses with vital funding to advance scientific research and support newer STEM faculty in the wake of a global pandemic, it will also bolster unique partnerships between CCCU institutions and major research institutions, with CCCU faculty members undertaking research projects in research laboratories at R1 universities or comparable institutions. The project will also provide funding for campuses to establish student clubs and support undergraduate student researchers in STEM fields, as well as provide opportunities for administrators and other campus-connected communities to engage science, religion, and society issues.
“This project has significant potential to help participating colleges tactically maintain their strength in STEM amid the challenges imposed by COVID-19, and to strategically enhance their efforts in STEM for the future as we emerge out of these difficult times,” says Stanley P. Rosenberg, CCCU’s vice president for research and scholarship and SCIO’s founder and executive director. “In combining its various elements, this offers a highly integrative and structured way to pursue deepening STEM research while attending to the big questions and the wider concerns of the community. This also represents a purposeful strategy and vision for expanding STEM through the forging of strategic relationships, rather than trying to do it on our own.”
For further information, please visit the project web page.