Innovation Networks: The Creation and Diffusion of Gender Equity Ideas in Universities

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Northeastern University will implement an NSF EHR Core Research (ECR) project that uses a multi-method social network analysis to better understand the evolution, operation, and outcomes of a network of grantees from the NSF-funded ADVANCE program. The NSF ADVANCE program has made awards since 2001 to promote systemic change that supports gender equity of the academic science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce. A consequence of the program has been the emergence of a nationwide NSF ADVANCE network of more than 195 universities and STEM organizations, with more than 1,500 individuals. This network includes Principal Investigators (PIs) and co-PIs, project directors and managers, advisory board members, evaluators, STEM faculty at all ranks, and gender and diversity scholars. Many of these participants are, or become, mid- and top-level administrators who potentially spread ideas about how to construct equitable academic workplaces when they move to other institutions, when they serve in various roles on multiple grants, and when they produce scholarship and other publications, therefore extending the reach of the network’s equity-enhancement strategies. The ECR project will examine how the network has multiplied the NSF’s initial investment through the exchange of ideas among STEM organizations.The research project will use a multi-method social network approach to analyze the creation and diffusion of key ideas through the multilayered networks formed through NSF ADVANCE. The project will combine network statistics, textual analysis, and qualitative methods to identify ideas and practices innovated in the network, and patterns and mechanisms of knowledge diffusion. The research will result in an original dataset from multiple sources: grants (dates, type, size, and other general information from the NSF award database), key documents from ADVANCE sites (proposals, reports, and full text conference papers and publications), individuals involved in ADVANCE grants (demographics, bibliometrics, and job histories since 2000), universities (organizational characteristics, for example size, type of institution with Carnegie Classification and IPEDS survey data, and rankings in Best Colleges), and other ADVANCE-related scholarship. The relational data will include ties created through (a) direct collaboration on grants, (b) serving on advisory boards, (c) working at the same university, (d) co-authoring scholarly papers, and (e) citing scholarly work. We also conduct case studies of six ADVANCE-funded institutions with 18 interviews and 20 interviews with other individuals involved in ADVANCE. This research will document and offer insight into how the creation, adoption, and diffusion of innovative ideas by this unique network of university leaders and scholars spurs comprehensive change in higher education institutions, including those without NSF ADVANCE grants. The research will benefit funding agencies and the broader community of higher education professionals who are interested in pursuing equity enhancement in higher education, especially within STEM fields.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.