The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities has announced the third cohort of the Visioning, Organizing, Leading and Advancing the Research Enterprise (VOLARÉ) Institute, which supports capacity-building for innovative research at Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs). Twenty institutions have been selected to begin the yearlong VOLARÉ Institute this fall.

The Institute will broaden participation in STEM and cultivate a new research workforce at IHEs, leveraging the Association’s network to provide accessible tools and information for a robust national research system. The VOLARÉ Institute focuses on the pre-award period with the goal of catalyzing research enterprise, bringing together faculty and staff from the selected institutions to engage in a series of research capacity-building activities to enhance skills and each institution’s ability to compete for funding.

The selected institutions for the third cohort of the VOLARÉ Institute are:

• California State University, Sacramento
• Cochise Community College
• College of the Desert
• DePaul University
• Fort Lewis College
• Gustavus Adolphus College
• Harold Washington College
• Indiana University Northwest
• Keck Graduate Institute
• Kentucky State University
• Montclair State University
• Nevada State University
• Our Lady of the Lake University
• Randolph Community College
• Rollins College
• San Francisco State University
• The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
• UConn Hartford
• Universidad Albizuv – San Juan
• Universidad del Sagrado Corazón

The VOLARÉ Institute project, led by Oralia De los Reyes, Ph.D., assistant vice president of programs and services at HACU, aims to establish VOLARÉ Institutes, a series of research capacity building institutes for IHEs, encompassing three cohorts of institutions over three years. Each Institute will span a yearlong program of activities. The VOLARÉ Institutes will train a new research workforce at IHEs in a deliberate and systematic way by offering accessible and actionable information and tools to build a strong national research system.

The VOLARÉ Institute is made possible by a grant funded by the National Science Foundation Growing Research Access for Nationally Transformative Equity and Diversity initiative.