An award to Boise State University is made to support the development of a workshop to bring together researchers located at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUI) to discuss mechanisms and priorities to maintain and enhance research endeavors in biodiversity, taxonomy, and systematic research in primarily teaching institutions. Research by taxonomists and systematists is focused on understanding and documenting Earth's biological diversity and its evolutionary history. The research is labor intensive and is replete with logistical, theoretical, and analytical challenges; these logistics are accentuated for researchers at PUI. The workshop will be three days in length and will include about 40 participants from PUI across the country. Participant selection is based on maximizing diversity among multiple criteria including representation of taxonomic groups, and experience of investigators (i.e., undergraduate students to senior investigators), Participants will also include colleagues from research (R1) institutions in order to discuss, share, and learn from their experience in dealing with problems common to the discipline. The workshop will explore new research opportunities and mechanisms to coordinate research efforts. Workshop management will be handled by three co-organizers.
Many of our future systematists and, scientists in general, receive their primary education, introduction to science, early research experiences, and first become engaged to pursue a career in science at institutions that offer limited advanced degree opportunities. As such, it is important that these institutions continue to promote and undertake research activities to guarantee future generations of scientists. This workshop will focus on how PUIs can increase research activities through greater undergraduate participation, expansion of research programs and, in many cases, greater appreciation and support for the research and contributions that arise from faculty at PUI. The workshop will disseminate its findings publically via the web.
Systematics plays a pivotal role as the basic science underlying numerous biological disciplines. Understanding the diversity of life on Earth and its evolutionary history is the starting point for studies of ecology, comparative physiology, behavior, and evolutionary processes, as well as applied fields that look to systematics as a first step toward the investigation and development of pharmaceuticals and agricultural production. Many future systematists get their primary education, introduction to the field, early research experiences and training, and motivation to pursue a career in science at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs). In June of 2010, a group of systematics researchers from PUI's across the U. S. A. met for a three day NSF sponsored workshop entitled "Primarily Unergraduate Institutions: An Important Resource for Systematics Research." The goal was to identify the needs of researchers in systematics at PUIs, try to outline ways and means that PUIs can make better use of current resources (including undergraduates themselves), and identify novel solutions to traditional problems as a means to maintain and bolster systematics and biodiversity research. Major Challenges to Research at PUI's - Beyond the basic need for "more time and money" there are several specific challenges facing systematics research at PUIs. Perhaps the greatest impediment among those discussed at the workshop was the reduced capacity to stay current with the literature. Systematics research uses a unique set of analytical tools that are unlikely to be used by other scientists whereas analytical methods in other fields may be shared regardless of the specific project or organism under study. Small PUIs also tend to have fewer staff which means researchers at PUIs tend to take on a greater service component than colleagues at R1 institutions. One of the final impediments discussed in the workshop was the problem of long periods of time between working on a research project. When starting out at a PUI there can be unrealistic expectations on the part of the systematics researcher to maintain productivity at the level they had as a graduate student and as a post-doc with the goal of being competitive with colleagues at R1s. While this is not an impossible goal, it is one that can be challenging and stressful, especially if the expectations are not met. Strategies for Success - The means of acquiring additional "time and money" to complete systematics research at PUI’s is likely to differ from R1 institutions. Involving undergraduate students in research activities can be rewarding for both the faculty and the student. The student gains hands-on experience with data collection, analysis and interpretation that cannot be accomplished in a traditional lecture/laboratory framework. Faculty can make use of enthusiasm and energy of students to collect and analyze data. The key to the successful involvement of undergraduates is to identify enthusiastic students in their first or second year of education. In cases where major equipment is needed, researchers should look toward collaborations at other institutions. The best use of time is essential at PUI’s since such institutions typically lack the personnel to promote research except the PI who is also teaching and may be involved in numerous university and department related service activities. As one participant noted "make 15 minutes a productive time" is sage advice for everyone, but especially important to a PUI systematist. Attendance at meetings can be one of the most valuable resources for successful research program at a PUI. Needs to Improve Research Capacity at PUI's - The workshop addressed the question of what could be done to overcome some of the impediments to conduct research at PUI's and how we could increase our capacity. Training workshops for PUI faculty. Workshops are a valuable means of introducing new methodologies and techniques and a relatively quick way for faculty to be current in their field. Grant Writing Workshop for PUI Faculty. A workshop, or series of workshops aimed to increase confidence in writing nationally competitive research grants would be one means of overcoming this problem. Small Grants Program. Another reason that many PUI systematists do not seek NSF funding may be that the size of NSF grants (~$100,000 per year) may be more than is necessary to complete the research and PUI faculty opt not to seek funds from NSF. Student Exchange Program. The lack of doctoral programs at PUIs means that the research is conducted by the faculty, undergraduates, or post-docs (see below). It is likely that students interested in systematics are not distributed evenly across all PUIs. One mechanism to overcome this isolation is to create a summer student exchange program. Teaching Post-Docs. One means of overcoming the lack of doctoral students could be through post-doctoral researchers. PUI Website. One means of sharing research equipment and expertise across PUIs would be a website dedicated to systematics research at PUIs.
