IUPUI’s commitment to educating, recruiting and retaining diverse faculty — particularly in STEM fields — resulted in IU Indianapolis being placed first in the STEM faculty category for the Taking Action: COVID-19 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Challenge issued by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The contest challenged universities to provide examples of programs and/or initiatives that led or are leading to systemic solutions to mitigating long-term impacts from the pandemic on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in STEM. The competition was broken down into four STEM categories of focus: undergraduate in a two-year institution, undergraduate in a four-year institution, graduate and professional students, and faculty.
IU Indianapolis was awarded a $25,000 cash prize for the contest. In fall 2022, we solicited suggestions from the IU Indianapolis community on how to make use of it. The suggestions resulted in the launch of the EPIC Taking Action Challenge Grants.