Research University Alliance

The Research University Alliance (RUA) is made up of a nine-university partnership that includes Berkeley, Caltech, Georgia Tech, Harvard University, UC Los Angeles, University of Michigan, Stanford University, University of Texas at Austin and University of Washington. RUA’s goal is to diversify the future professoriate nationally by creating robust professional development, mentoring, and networking opportunities. Alliance Universities "Each institution is being tapped for a unique contribution to changing the status quo." For the first time, nine of the nation's most prominent universities are engaging in joint mentorship, scientific collaboration, career development and guidance of advanced PhD students and postdoctoral fellows. Institution Contributions The Research University Alliance brings together nine very high research (R1) universities with the goal of developing, implementing, evaluating, and disseminating a model that increases the number of historically underrepresented minorities (URM) in the Mathematical, Physical, and Environmental Sciences, and Engineering (MPESE) among the nation’s postdoctoral ranks and on the faculty. The partnership involves the University of California Berkeley (Berkeley), the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Stanford University (Stanford), the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the University of Washington, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Michigan, Harvard University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. The Alliance team is expanding and improving activities that have previously been piloted by a partnership between Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford and Caltech (the California Alliance). Each RUA partner has responsibility for leading the alliance in the establishment of one or more specific components of the model. RUA employs multiple participant-focused interventions to facilitate the advancement of URM doctoral candidates, postdoctoral scholars and early-career faculty in MPESE disciplines: A doctoral candidate and postdoctoral scholar research exchange across partnering institutions; an on-line portal to facilitate placement and hiring of postdoctoral scholars; a faculty advancement initiative for postdoctoral scholars transitioning into early-career faculty positions; and a suite of academic community-building activities to enhance faculty career pathways, such as targeted professional development, cohort building and network development. The primary outcomes of this AGEP Alliance Model project are increased rates of doctoral candidates transitioning into postdoctoral scholar positions and postdoctoral scholars transitioning into early-career faculty employment, as well as the scaling of the research exchange and postdoctoral on-line portal beyond the nine partnering institutions.