AGEP/HRD SGER: enhancing the Cyberinfrastructure for National AGEP Integration: Rapid Prototyping and Evaluation of a Pilot NY AGEP Collaboratory

简介：为了解决国内代表性不足的人口（即非洲裔美国人，西班牙裔美国人，美洲印第安人，阿拉斯加原住民，夏威夷原住民或其他太平洋岛民）在STEM学科（科学，技术，工程和数学）攻读博士学位的严重短缺问题，研究生教育和教授联盟（AGEP）计划于1998年由该基金会发起。在过去的7年中，该计划已从1998年的几个联盟发展到2005年的27个全国agep联盟。为了更好地实现计划目标，这些AGEP联盟需要相互合作，但交易成本和财务限制阻碍了他们在区域或国家基础上更有效地合作。这一限制可能会阻碍AGEP计划的充分潜力和发展，因为个别联盟可能会错过识别和分享从其他AGEP联盟获得的最佳实践和经验教训的机会。该项目的目的是作为一项试点研究，探索网络基础设施的战略部署在多大程度上可以扩大和深化纽约州AGEP联盟之间的合作，并为加强AGEP联盟的全国整合的更大提案奠定经验基础。智力优势：为了实现在全国AGEP社区中加强合作和分享最佳实践和资源的目标，我们将研究设计为两个阶段实施：第一阶段的重点将是为纽约AGEP联盟的新兴伙伴关系建立一个试点合作实验室。该试验性NYAGEP合作实验室将作为国家AGEP合作实验室的原型，该实验室可能在对试验数据进行评估后提出。在拟议项目的第二阶段，我们将把试点合作实验室的成员扩大到东海岸剩余的三个AGEP联盟。同样，这个东海岸AGEP试验性实验室将帮助我们在计划拟议的国家AGEP合作项目时吸取宝贵的经验教训。在网络基础设施和协作实验室发展文献的指导下，我们建议围绕协作实践研究三个主要领域。我们将这些领域描述为：(1)人与人之间；(2) people-to-information;(3)人力资源。这些领域中的每一个都对AGEP联盟的需求至关重要。将对试点研究进行形成性和总结性评估，以提供有助于制定项目后续阶段决策的分析，最终形成国家AGEP合作实验室。评估的领域包括行政能力、规划和研究、附属机构能力建设以及加强外联能力。更广泛的社会影响：除了项目对参与agep联盟在能力建设和效率提高方面的直接影响，以促进其目标的实现，以支持更多未被充分代表的人口成员在STEM学科中获得博士学位并进入教授学位，该项目在地区和国家层面具有更广泛的影响。各大学及其学生总体上将受益于参与大学之间合作机会的增加，包括棕色包、课程、研讨会和研究机会。这些技术将使当地社区更容易参与相关的研究活动。在全国范围内，从该项目中吸取的经验教训不仅可以应用于未来的AGEP合作实验室，还可以应用于其他松散的跨学科和多机构行动者网络和联盟。

Introduction: With the goal to address the severe national shortage in the number ofdomestic members of underrepresented populations (i.e., African Americans, Hispanics,American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders) pursuingdoctoral degrees in the STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics),the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) Program was initiated by theNSF in 1998. During the last 7 years, the program has grown from few alliances in 1998 to 27AGEP alliances nationwide in 2005. While these AGEP alliances are required to collaborateamongst themselves in order to better fulfill the program goals, transaction costs and financialconstraints prevent them from collaborating more effectively on a regional or national basis.This limitation may hinder the full potential and growth of the AGEP Program becauseindividual alliances may miss out on opportunities for the identification and sharing of bestpractices and lessons learned from other AGEP alliances. The purpose of this project is toexplore the degree to which the strategic deployment of cyberinfrastructure can broaden anddeepen collaboration amongst AGEP alliances in NY State, as a pilot study, and to lay theempirical foundation for a larger proposal to strengthen the national integration of AGEPalliances.Intellectual Merit: To accomplish these goals for enhanced collaboration and sharing ofbest practices and resources throughout the national AGEP community, we have designed ourstudy to be implemented in two phases: The focus of Phase One will be to build a pilotcollaboratory for the emerging partnership of the New York AGEP alliances. This pilot NYAGEP Collaboratory will serve as the prototype of a National AGEP Collaboratory that may beproposed after evaluation of the pilot data. In Phase Two of the proposed project, we willexpand membership in the pilot collaboratory to the remaining three AGEP alliances on the EastCoast. Again, this pilot East Coast AGEP Collaboratory will help us to learn valuable lessons aswe plan for a proposed National AGEP Collaboratory project. Guided by literature on thedevelopment of Cyberinfrastructure and Collaboratories, we propose to study the threeoverarching domains around collaboratory practices. We characterize these domains as: (1)people-to-people; (2) people-to-information; and (3) people-to-facilities. Each of these domainsis critical to the needs of the AGEP alliances. Formative and summative evaluation of the pilotstudy will be undertaken to provide the analysis that will help in making decisions about thesubsequent phases of the project, leading up to the national AGEP Collaboratory. Areas that willbe evaluated include administrative capacity, planning and research, affiliate capacity building,and enhancing outreach capacity.Broader Societal Impacts: In addition to the project's direct impact on the participatingAGEP alliances in terms of building their capacities and increasing their efficiency to facilitatethe achievement of their objectives to support the development of more members ofunderrepresented populations achieving the doctorate in the STEM disciplines and entering theprofessoriate, the project has broader impact at regional and national levels. The universities andtheir student populations in general will benefit from increased opportunities for collaborationamongst the participating universities, including brown bags, courses, seminars, and researchopportunities. These technologies will make it easier to engage local communities in researchactivities where relevant. Nationally, the lessons learned form this project can be applied notonly to the future AGEP collaboratory, but to other loose networks and alliances ofinterdisciplinary and multi-institutional actors.