Supporting Structures: Innovative Partnerships to Enhance Bench Science at CCCU Member Institutions

This project will help a number of science-affirming US Christian liberal arts colleges and universities to enhance their long-term engagement with science and science research. It will employ five interrelated strands of activity. In the first, the culture of science research at CCCU colleges will be bolstered by expanding research opportunities among existing faculty members in STEM. Pre-tenure (or equivalent) faculty members will undertake research projects in research laboratories or groups at R1 universities or research institutions. In the second, participating faculty members (along with additional colleagues from each institution) will receive training through a suite of CCCU/SCIO-run support programs that will deepen their understanding of and engagement with science in relation to contemporary issues in society, and equip them to participate better in ongoing societal and scholarly conversations about science-religion issues. In the third, campus-wide engagement with science will be promoted through the establishment of student clubs, through support for undergraduate researchers in STEM, by engaging with senior leadership on campus through a presidential roundtable in Oxford, and through the coordinated development of offices of research and grant support on CCCU campuses. In the fourth, campuses will promote sophisticated engagement in science, religion, and society issues among broader institutional stakeholders (e.g., alumni, families of students, church denominational supporters, funders etc.). And in the fifth, campuses will be supported to enhance diversity among STEM faculty through the provision of a diversity in STEM campus development fund. By the end of the project, faculty members, students, senior administration, and the broader communities entailed will be stronger research institutions, and will be capable of reflecting on issues at the intersections of science, religion, and society with greater depth and sophistication.