EAGER: A Research-Driven Messaging Campaign to Transform Perceptions of URMs in STEM Innovation

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This EAGER project engages in research that has the potential to transform the field of innovation of entrepreneurship as it relates to broadening participation of women of color in educational and academic related innovation environments. The goal of this project is to use storytelling to explore which factors influence the access, pursuit, and success of underrepresented populations in innovative STEM spaces and create a research-driven messaging campaign for the National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) I-Corps program. Innovation and entrepreneurship are major economic drivers in the United States and are essential to ensure the Nation’s standing as a global leader in science and technology. Because of the significant lack of inclusion of under-represented groups in STEM, there is also an absence of innovators with diverse experiences, ideas, perspectives, and stories. Including these groups in the National Innovation Network can add potentially transformative ways of thinking about innovation and entrepreneurship. Results from this study will be used to uncover what factors (stories, ideas, experiences, perceptions) influence/play a role in NSF’s under-represented populations access to, pursuit of, and success in innovative STEM spaces (both academic and professional). It will also inform the planning and implementation of a pilot messaging campaign aimed at broadening participation of under-represented groups in NSF’s I-Corps program. Previous efforts to address innovation for under-represented women in STEM have not been effective in producing substantive impact that led to measurable increases in this area. By focusing on stories told by under-represented communities in STEM, this project seeks to uncover specific reasons these groups do not have access to STEM sectors or think they do not fit in these spaces. The outcomes are expected to advance the understanding of the barriers members of under-represented communities face in STEM fields, and have the potential to significantly impact the inclusion of underrepresented groups in STEM and innovation within workplaces, schools, universities, and community spaces.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.