EAGER: The Transmission Zone Between the Producers and Consumers of Knowledge About Women in Science and Engineering

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

Intellectual Merit: The proposed project is a strategic study addressing how existing knowledge about women in science and engineering gets transmitted from the producers of the research studies to the consumers of the knowledge. Although a wealth of data and knowledge about women in science and engineering has been produced, this knowledge often fails to reach important intended consumers: working women scientists, students, department chairs, administrators, and all those interested in engaging in productive action to improve the status of women in science and engineering. The project will explore the key initial dimensions of this problem and will identify blockages and inefficiencies in the current system of transmission of knowledge, as well as promising initiatives and models of transmission. The study of such a flow of knowledge about women in science and engineering is unusual (and even unique)and the potential payoffs are high in both intellectual merit and broader impacts. The methods involve bibliometric means, individual interviews, and organizational case study analyses in two research steps. The first step characterizes the relevant actors ("nodes") in the network of transmission: including social scientists, funding agencies, university administrators, science reporters and editors, key committees of professional associations, national organizations for women in science and engineering, and working scientists, instructors, and students. The second step defines what constitutes the connections ("links") between these actors. The project will create a description of the transmission zone that, in itself, will be novel, interesting, and useful for the organizations and individuals concerned with the status and conditions of women in science and engineering. Further, it will prepare the bases for a systematic and comprehensive network survey of information flows and their blockages as well as facilitators Broader Impacts: The significance of the project lies in its high potential for revealing and understanding both the challenges of, and opportunities for, the transmission of knowledge about women in science and engineering; and for establishing the feasibility of, laying the groundwork for, and heightening the probability of success of a more comprehensive network study of this ?transmission zone? of knowledge. The EAGER program is the ideal vehicle for this study?as no other existing NSF program is situated to consider such an unusual, exploratory, and high-potential proposal. By identifying blockages and inefficiencies in the current system of transmission of knowledge, as well as promising initiatives and models of transmission, this study will lay the foundation for making the transmission of knowledge about women in science and engineering more efficient and useful. Furthermore, the study has potentially even broader impact insofar as it may be applicable to the dissemination of scientific knowledge in other areas.