The Office of the Vice Provost for Research at WPI - Creating a culture of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging

As part of the on-going series of articles discussing the SEI Council’s actions and goals, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) would like to share some examples of efforts that the OVPR is initiating in order to help improve diversity, equity, and inclusion at WPI through research and related collaborations.  

The VPR office in collaboration with the STEM Education Center initiated a Research/Scholarship in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) Working Group at WPI. One goal is to share research interests and current work with a DEIB focus and identify funding opportunities that would support these endeavors.  Another goal is to help bring together WPI faculty and staff, interested in pursuing DEIB research, understand their specific research interests and support them in identifying funding opportunities and collaborators.

The VPR’s office is also encouraging Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEIJ) research and scholarship activities by establishing an internal DEIJ seed/planning grant program (DEIJ PGP). The goal of the DEIJ PGP is to enable teams to have the time and space to collaboratively examine issues around DEIJ and design research studies, scholarly or creative works, preferably for external funding and/or in collaboration with external partners, e.g., practitioners and researchers with DEIJ expertise. Applications are due via email to rsi@wpi.edu by 5 pm. May 26, 2022, and individual requests may be for a total amount of up to $4,000. For more information, please go here.

We are excited about moving forward on these and other efforts to help foster and create a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our research and WPI community!