24th NSF EPSCoR National Conference

University Of New Hampshire, Durham NH

Investigators

Abstract

Non-technical Description The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) holds National Conferences that bring representatives from all EPSCoR jurisdictions together to discuss strategies to promote EPSCoR goals of building STEM research and education capacity to increase their national competitiveness. This biennial event is a forum for EPSCoR project directors and participants to discuss opportunities and challenges at the local, state, national, and international levels and how EPSCoR efforts can collectively contribute to the advancement of science and engineering research and education. This meeting also showcases results from projects funded by NSF EPSCoR. The 24th National EPSCoR Conference will be held in Portsmouth, New Hampshire from November 1-4, 2015 and is expected to have about 300-400 attendees. This meeting is co-organized by New Hampshire and Maine EPSCoR with a focus on building strong collaborations and effective communications skills. Technical Description The theme for the 24th National EPSCoR Conference is ?Collaboration: Advancing the Role of Science in the Service of Society.? The conference aims to identify effective collaboration strategies and advance the following objectives: showcase collaborative efforts in EPSCoR jurisdictions and their societal contributions; explore ways to build collaborations based on EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) projects? research themes; promote collaboration across universities and K-12 schools in EPSCoR jurisdictions to strengthen the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce continuum; build capacity among faculty, staff, students and statewide EPSCoR committees to better understand and communicate the value of research and its broader impacts to diverse audiences. This conference will help build a strong, collaborative EPSCoR community that contributes significantly and competes well on the national arena in alignment with NSF EPSCoR goals. The conference activities are aligned with the objectives and consist of plenary and break-out sessions. A student poster session will run through two days of the meeting and will highlight results from the research and education facilitated by NSF EPSCoR RII awards. Unique components that will be experimented at this meeting are: a pre-conference workshop to discuss strategies and tools for strong collaborative efforts and how to assess their success; communications workshops facilitated by Alan Alda School of Science Communication at Stoney Brook University to learn about strategies to effectively disseminate EPSCoR activities and impacts to broad range of stakeholders; science cafés on topics related to the power of collaboration; and an applied theater event on gender and racial biases in faculty hiring process.