Typical award amount: Up to $18,000
Estimated number of awards: 7-10 each in 2023, 2025, and 2027
Deadline: October 1, 2025. The AGeS-DiG proposal submission portal will open on the DiG-How to Apply page approximately 2 months before the deadline.

Start date and duration of funded DiG projects: Projects funded in 2023 will have a project duration of Jan 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, during which all awarded funds should be expended.

Eligibility details:

  • Proposals can be submitted by scientists anywhere in the U.S. (e.g., accredited colleges and universities, government agencies, national labs, other non-profit academic research institutions), including by those at the faculty, senior scientist, postdoctoral scientist, and graduate levels. In addition to the lead-PI, it is an option for a co-PI to be included on the proposal.
  • AGeS labs are eligible to apply directly for this funding and may otherwise be engaged in DiG proposals, but it is not a requirement that a lab be involved in DiG projects.
  • For the 2023 proposal cycle, previous DiG awardees are not eligible to apply for DiG funding.

Goals of AGeS-DiG

  • Engage, train, and educate students at any level (including undergraduate and community college) who have not historically had equal access to geochronology data and training.
  • Generate and test innovative ideas to expand geochronology access for those minoritized in the Earth sciences.

Program Overview

AGeS-DiG provides support for scientists to engage, train, and educate minoritized student groups who have not historically had equal access to geochronology resources. The outcomes will identify impactful BAJEDI (Belonging, Accessibility, Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion) initiatives and may position the awardees to successfully seek future support from funding agencies to continue and/or broaden their project’s scope. Proposals should clearly identify the underrepresented group(s) to be targeted, make the case that students of this group are underrepresented in geochronology and therefore are appropriate to target with an AGeS-DiG project, outline how these students will be recruited to and selected for the project, describe the mentoring/retention plan, and explain the science motivation for the project. What we mean by diverse and resources on inclusive practices for recruitment, selection, mentoring, and retention of diverse students can be found on the AGeS Inclusive Community pages. Pre- and post-surveys will be conducted by the AGeS team as part of the AGeS evaluation activity of all students who participate in DiG projects.

Types of Projects Supported by AGeS-DiG

Priority will be given to projects that: emphasize authentic research experiences, mentor two or more students, foster a cohort experience for participants, articulate an effective recruitment and mentoring/retention plan, and include a stipend for the student participants. Examples of possible AGeS-DiG projects include but are not limited to: opportunities for underserved groups to visit labs in person to acquire data for project(s); training of an underrepresented cohort in geochronology methods and remote data acquisition for a project; or other innovative concepts.