ACES

ADVANCE OPPORTUNITY FUND

Testimonials | Grant Recipients

With generous support from the National Science Foundation, the Academic Careers in Science and Engineering (ACES) program at Case Western Reserve University sought to contribute to the development of a national science and engineering workforce that includes the full participation of women at all levels of faculty and academic research.

Opportunity grants were established to maximize the chance of success for women faculty at Case by providing support of current or proposed projects and activities where funding is difficult to obtain through other sources. $60,000 was available in this fund, and ACES made multiple awards. All women faculty, including instructors and research faculty, were eligible to apply. Examples of funding support include:

Seed funding for unusual research opportunities

Bridge funding when ongoing research funding has been suspended

Grants to support writing of books

Travel grants to explore new techniques or attend advanced training courses

Child care to attend a professional meeting or conduct research at another institution

Submitted applications included a statement of objectives, brief statement of project or activity (2 page maximum), budget justification, supporting information if any, and current CV (2-4 page NSF/NIH biographical sketch). Proposals were to be written for a general scientific audience. The application was to be submitted as a single pdf file with the proposal first and the CV last. Grants were awarded on a competitive basis. Mentoring was offered in addition to funding in some cases. 

A PDF version of this information can be found at this link.

To view some frequently asked questions about the Advance Opportunity Grant, click this link.

If you have received funds from the ACES grant, we request that you add this statement to any and all printed materials and websites connected with the funding:
"This [xx] was supported by an NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Grant, SBE-0245054, Academic Careers in Engineering and Science (ACES) at Case Western Reserve University, start date 9/1/2003, end date 8/31/2008."

Testimonials

“...the $20,000 has allowed me to pay a graduate student half a salary, so I could keep the work in the lab going and spend time with my newborn without having to take a break professionally. It has substantially contributed to my ability to publish 2 articles in a timely manner, and 3 others that are in review. I have presented these papers at conferences, which have made possible broader professional exposure”.

“The Opportunity grant had a significant impact. It allowed us to go into a new direction: ...which I would not have been able to do otherwise, ...our research now has broader meaning because of the grant. Two papers have resulted from this research so far, but several more are anticipated.”

“The ACES grant had a big impact on my research because I could hire part time students to help me with my data gathering. This way I was able to involve 12 research sites in my study, making it very robust once it is completed.”

“...the grant made possible an invitation of a distinguished speaker. She came to give a talk at our campus, and we are now collaborating on a paper. Subsequently, I also developed a paper with a colleague in my own department.”

“I used [it] to go to a conference... in Berlin, where I presented a paper and met other faculty who ...followed my research ... I was so happy to find I am not working in a vacuum, and to see that other researchers valued my work. I developed two potential collaborations ... and ...my most recent paper has been accepted for publication in a British journal.”

“The ACES grant ...has allowed me to help organize and attend an important small conference in my field. Because of this conference, I am now an associate editor on a monograph. With this came increased visibility, and when I came up for my tenure review, my taking leadership to organize that conference was looked upon very favorably.”

“The ACES grant support was coming just at a critical moment because funding from NIH was under review and it ... allowed me to continue collecting data, which otherwise would not have been possible. I will have a paper to publish within a few weeks because of it.”

Year 5 Grant Awards

Kristian Baker – Center for RNA
Susan Brady-Kalnay – Molecular Biology & Microbiology
Susan Case – Organizational Behavior
Susan Hinze – Sociology
Bonnie Lawrence – Psychology
Catherine Patterson – Molecular Biology & Microbiology
Ruth Siegel – Pharmacology
Noa Noy - Pharmacology
Meral Oszoyoglu - Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Clare Rimnac - Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Year 4 Grant Awards

Cynthia Beall – Anthropology
Melissa Knothe-Tate – Biomedical Engineering
Anna-Liisa Nieminen – Anatomy
Ica Manas Zloczower – Macromolecular Science & Engineering
M. Cather Simpson – Chemistry
Ramani Pilla – Statistics
Anastasia Dimitropoulos - Psychology
Diana Bergeron – Organizational Behavior
Heather Royer – Economics
Charlotte Ikels – Anthropology
Kristian Baker – Center for RNA
Susan Brady-Kalnay – Molecular Biology & Microbiology
Susan Case – Organizational Behavior
Susan Hinze – Sociology
Bonnie Lawrence – Psychology
Noa Noy – Pharmacology
Catherine Patterson – Molecular Biology & Microbiology
Ruth Siegel – Pharmacology

Year 3 Grant Awards

Anne Marie Broome – Biomedical Engineering
Daniella Calvetti – Mathematics
Jennifer Liang – Biology
Ramani Pilla – Statistics
Deborah O’Neil – Organizational Behavior
Ruth Siegel – Pharmacology
M. Cather Simpson – Chemistry
Caroline Sussman – Physiology & Biophysics
Elisabeth Werner – Mathematics
Charlotte Ikels – Anthropology
Janet McGrath – Anthropology
Emilia McGucken – Sociology

Year 2 Grant Awards

Alexis Abramson - Mechical & Aerospace Engineering
Cynthia Beall - Anthropology
Anne Marie Broome - Physiology & Biophysics
Cheri Deng - Biomedical Engineering
Moren Levesque - Marketing & Policy Studies
Lisa Maillart - Operations
Heidi Martin - Chemical Engineering
Emilia McGucken - Sociology
Monica Montano - Pharmacology
Anna-Liisa Nieminen - Anatomy
Deborah O'Neil - Organizational Behavior
Julie Rennecker - Information Systems
Claire Rimnac - Mechnical & Aerospace Engineering
Helen Salz - Genetics
Beverly Saylor - Geological Sciences
M. Cather Simpson - Chemistry
Amy Wilson-Delfosse - Pharmacology

Year 1 Grant Awards

Kathleen Kash – Physics
Hue Lee Kaung – Anatomy
Heather Morrison – Astronomy
Elizabeth Short – Psychology
Ruth Siegel – Pharmacology
Karen Skubal – Civil Engineering
Caroline Sussman – Physiology &anp; Biophysics
Lee Ann Thompson – Psychology
Elisabeth Werner – Mathematics