2021 Germination Investigator Workshop

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

The EFMA Germination program seeks to promote the development and implementation of novel approaches, platforms, and environments for training academics to formulate societally impactful research questions. This award will provide support for a two-day workshop to be held at the National Science Foundation, which will convene teams funded through the Germination program together with other academic stakeholders (including senior leadership and individual researchers) to share the results obtained in their Germination-funded research. The workshop builds upon prior Germination investigator meetings with the aim of propelling information exchange and furthering community building. The planned workshop will bring together Germination awardees and other stakeholders to reflect on how their projects have facilitated the formulation of transformative research questions. Primary objectives of the workshop include: 1) Share the outcomes and positive strategies of Germination projects. 2) Compare the strategies taken by different projects. 3) Consider mechanisms and metrics for evaluating outcomes of Germination approaches. 4) Build community and support collaboration among Germination awardees, with a specific emphasis on identifying both knowledge gaps and collaboration opportunities. Assembling representatives from the Germination projects offers a unique opportunity to synthesize their knowledge of the multifaceted challenges inherent in current higher education and research infrastructures. This workshop will assist in building a community of practitioners committed to designing new learning frameworks, platforms, and/or environments for training academics to formulate research questions with substantive potential for societal impact. Importantly, participants will represent both predominantly white institutions and minority-serving institutions broadening the likely impact of discussions. Successful scaling and implementation of Germination approaches offers significant opportunity for broader impacts through catalysing research directions that address pressing societal challenges and needs. 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.