Conference: Supporting Sponsored Program Success NSF EDU Proposal Development for IHEs in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi

Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) jurisdictions are important to the national science and engineering ecosystem. Unfortunately, in the ESPCoR states of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana only a small proportion of institutions are likely to submit proposals to the National Science Foundation as compared to their counterparts across the country. There is critical national need to support the engagement of EPSCoR jurisdictions in research and development capacity development while also understanding how to mitigate policies or practices that are barring their full engagement in the national science and engineering funding ecosystem. For STEM Education projects, institutions of higher education in EPSCoR jurisdictions represent important locations for teaching and learning, workforce development, and STEM engagement. This workshop will provide faculty at institutions in the three states the opportunity to participate in a research community that will support their STEM education research projects. The workshop will also support staff and administrators at their institutions in learning more about the grant-writing and funding process. This workshop supports their learning about NSF funding, but also the grant-writing process and research development process in general. The overarching goal of the workshop is for participants and their institutions to learn more about the grant-writing and submission process for STEM education projects. The project has four objectives: (1) conduct a proposal development workshop for fifty researchers from Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi to demystify NSF funding mechanisms and the review process, (2) develop a collaborative research community that will include online communication portals for attendees looking to develop and submit proposals to NSF, (3) dismantle barriers to engagement with NSF by collecting perceived factors from attendees through focus group activity with increased communication between NSF-interested and NSF-funded researchers to support grant-writing and submission long-term, and (4) provide support through post-workshop activities that deconstruct the core components of NSF proposals. The project will provide information about the barriers and opportunities to grant-writing for NSF and beyond that exist for institutions of higher education in the three EPSCoR states. This project is supported by NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.