Simpson to participate in cross-institutional internship program

Simpson College is to participate in I-RAISE, a cross-institutional program designed to build a more robust regional research administration and grants professionals’ workforce for the future. The program, which is spearheaded by Iowa State University, is funded through a competitive grant of $3.7 million over 4.5 years from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Up to two Simpson students will be able to be a part of the program per year and will be supervised by Marzia Corni-Benson, Director of Foundation and Government Support Programs, for the on-campus portion of the internship. 

“As a small, emerging research institution, we have limited capacity to provide training and support for faculty engaged in research,” said Corni-Benson. “Through I-RAISE, we have the opportunity to engage students in research administration not only to extend the capability of our one-person office, but also, and more importantly, to develop a well-trained pipeline of local talent that can fill the current gaps in our workforce.”

I-RAISE will prepare undergraduate and graduate students from partner institutions for careers in Research Administration (RA) and as grant professionals through a classroom-based RA boot camp and summer internship at Iowa State, followed by additional mentored internship rotations at each student’s home institution. The other participating institutions include Iowa State University, University of Northern Iowa, Drake University, Central College, and Dordt University.

The first cohort of I-RAISE students will be recruited this spring for a program kickoff in late May. The project team will also develop and host an open-access, on-demand set of training resources for onboarding new RA staff at any institution by converting the I-RAISE boot camp curriculum into freely available online training modules to be hosted in partnership with Iowa State Extension and Outreach.

I-RAISE internship applications for Simpson students are accepted now through March 18, 2024, at 5 p.m. Apply here. Virtual zoom information sessions for students will be offered on February 27 and 29 at 5 p.m. Join zoom sessions here.