Calling Educators and Researchers: Here’s a New Source for Travel Funds

An undergraduate researcher stands by her prize-winning poster at a scientific conference. [Photo by M. Hoefnagels]

If you have ever wanted to expose your introductory biology students to authentic research but weren’t sure how to begin, help is on the way. A multi-university team of faculty, led by Rachelle Spell and Chris Beck of Emory University, has received funding that will help “bridge the divide between research and education.” The NSF-funded project is called REIL-Biology.

The goals are to help faculty develop new research modules for use in introductory biology and to engage new faculty in implementation. The path to achieving these goals is a 5-year series of workshop meetings. According to the REIL-Biology website, “In each year, one workshop will be hosted in association with an annual meeting of the biology education community and disciplinary researchers in biology will be actively recruited to attend. A second workshop will be hosted in association with a biology disciplinary society and members of the biology education community will be actively recruited to attend.” In other words, if you regularly attend education conferences, bring a research colleague… and if you regularly attend disciplinary conferences, bring an education specialist. The REIL-Biology project will fund travel for one member (or possibly more, as needed) of a researcher/educator team.

One of the REIL-Biology workshops will take place just before the ABLE meeting this summer in Boston. If you weren’t planning on going to that one, you can probably find another one you’d like. The REIL-Biology website lists five years’ worth of workshops (2015-2019) associated with the annual conferences of such organizations as the Ecological Society of America, American Society for Cell Biology, Council on Undergraduate Research, American Society for Microbiology, National Association of Biology Teachers, and more.

Thinking of applying? Go here: http://rcn.ableweb.org/. And if you’re still mulling it over, or you want to promote this opportunity more widely, you can download the flyer here: REIL-Biology workshops.