This proposers seek to seed the collaborative engagement of Louisiana?s NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awardees (collectively defined as Presidential Young Investigators (PYIs), NSF Young Investigators (NYIs), and CAREER awardees) and establish a mechanism to assess and evaluate the impact of this group?s collaborative efforts on the science and education enterprise within in the state. In addition, the proposers will explore seeding similar collaborative efforts in nine other EPSCoR jurisdictions. The proposers envision a two-day conference that will include participants from twenty-two of Louisiana?s institutions that provide baccalaureate or higher degrees, including four Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The targeted institutions represent a broad range - public, private, regional, minority serving, research intensive, and primarily undergraduate. Invited participants from other EPSCoR jurisdictions will have a role in evaluating the workshop?s effectiveness and in seeding collaborations of CAREER awardees within their respective jurisdictions.
Intellectual Merit: The intellectual merit centers on establishing an eminent community of CAREER awardees whose collaborations could significantly strengthen the STEM research and education enterprise of several EPSCoR jurisdictions located primarily in the southeastern United States. The intellectual merit is associated with seeding the proposed organization of a ?Louisiana Academy of NSF CAREER Awardees? (LANCA) which could be adapted and/or adopted by other jurisdictions. The resulting ?academies? would seek to: (i) enhance continued career development of awardees, (ii) coordinate and strengthen educational/outreach activities within the jurisdictions, (iii) systematically identify, encourage and mentor potential future CAREER awardees, and (iv) undertake additional scientific, policy, and service activities determined collectively by the participants, and (v) serve as a resource to stimulate collaborations across the jurisdictions and to assist young faculty in applying for CAREER awards. Broader Impacts: The potential broader impacts of a cohesive, highly motivated group of ?young? investigators who are committed to STEM research and education for the benefit of next generation scientists and engineers could have a transformative impact on the STEM research and education enterprise of Louisiana. Additional broader impacts of the proposed work lie in the use of outcomes from the evaluation and assessment of the group?s efforts and the dissemination of that information to other EPSCoR jurisdictions for their use in initiating similar partnerships. Assessment categories will include the impact of the NSF funding on the awardees via trends in retention, longitudinal grant and professional success, and other indicators.
This program sought to accomplish three main tasks related to the NSF CAREER program in Louisiana and the surrounding region. 1) to host a workshop and poster session around the CAREER program in the region 2) to study the impact of the CAREER program 3) to look towards establishing an enduring advocacy group of CAREER awardees The principle outcomes were that a workshop was held on Nov 8 and 9, 2011 and that a survey sent to the research offices of almost all the higher education institutions in the state of Louisiana allowed the compilation of an assessment of the impact of the CAREER program in this state based on multiple years of results. The workshop objectives were to bring together administrators, past awardees, the K-12 community, potential applicants, and companies with a view to (a) honoring awardees and encouraging university administrators to actively support their development and to nurture further potential award recipients; (b) highlighting the varied needs of K-12 educational practice to which awardees and future applicants can address themselves; and (c) providing awardees the opportunity to consider in depth and detail the possible benefits of establishing an advocacy group of their members. To this end, more than 100 registered including almost all higher education institutions in Louisiana as well as representatives from Mississippi, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, US Virgin Islands, Idaho, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Idaho. Also participating in the workshop were the NSF and NIH, several private foundations, several companies, and more than a dozen K-12 school districts representing much of the state of Louisiana. The survey sought to contribute to an evaluation of the CAREER program by comparing the career attainments of CAREER awardees with attainments of non-awardee applicants with respect to key variable of scholarly production. The data analysis revealed several differences between awardees and non-awardees particularly in the area of research. CAREER recipients receive more grants and receive more dollars in grant funding over their careers than non-recipients. They receive more NSF grants following the CAREER award, the strongest association measured. Recipients seem to have more collaborative relationships as evidenced by a larger number of co-principal investigator roles on grants. Also, recipients are awarded a larger number of professional honors from their peers than non-recipients. CAREER recipients are no different than non-recipients on their total number of publications in peer-reviewed research journals.
