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Undergraduate Mentoring in Environmental Biology (UMEB) is a program developed by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The four Divisions of the Directorate for Biological Sciences of NSF, which include the Division of Environmental Biology, the Division of Integrative Biology & Neuroscience, the Division of Biological Infrastructure, and the Division of Molecular & Cellular Biosciences, support this program. The main objective of NSF's program is to provide support for talented undergraduate students to gain research experience in biological sciences related to the environment within a culturally diverse, research-rich learning environment. A second NSF objective is to enable faculty members to become better mentors. Projects involve year-round mentoring and include major emphasis on direct student participation in research. Research activities encompass the academic year and summer, with individual students continuing in the program for more than one year. PROGRAM GOALS: This program is designed to enable academic institutions and their partners, as well as professional societies, to enhance access to careers in environmental biology (broadly defined) for undergraduate students, particularly those from underrepresented groups. Two types of project may be supported: (1) Research-Mentoring grants provide support for talented undergraduate students to gain research experience in biological sciences related to the environment within a culturally diverse, research-rich learning environment, while enabling faculty members to become better mentors. (2) Travel to Meetings of professional societies by undergraduate students may be supported through grants to or on behalf of the professional societies. Unlike previous years, planning grants are no longer supported and there is no deadline for submission of travel grants. All projects should emphasize factors that encourage and enable members of underrepresented groups, as defined in the Program Solicitation, to enter and remain in environmental biology. The short-term goal is to train upper-division undergraduate students in the subject of environmental biology. The intermediate goal is to encourage these students to develop their careers in the fields of environmental biology research, education, or management. "Environmental biology" is broadly defined to include areas of research focusing on organisms as they evolve, interact with each other, and/or interact with their environment, from perspectives that range from molecular to ecosystem levels. |
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