Adaptation: Project CREST - Changing Research Experiences, Structures, and (in)Tolerance through the Adaptation of Promising Equity Practices

美国必须有一个蓬勃发展的学术研究界。然而，在科学、技术、工程、数学（STEM）和社会行为科学（SBS）领域，女性和少数族裔教师在生产力、智力影响和职业发展方面面临着重大障碍。为了保持美国的竞争力、创新性和对全球需求的响应，大学支持不同研究人员的包容和公平参与是很重要的。科罗拉多大学科罗拉多斯普林斯分校（UCCS）的ADVANCE Adaptation项目，名为CREST项目，旨在显著提高STEM和SBS领域女性教师的研究能力和机会。CREST项目借鉴了之前资助的蒙大拿州立大学、西弗吉尼亚大学、西雅图大学和佐治亚理工学院ADVANCE机构转型项目的成熟策略。目标是利用这些基于证据的策略，在科罗拉多州南部最大的大学UCCS建立一个响应性和包容性的研究文化。CREST项目将侧重于系统性改革工作，旨在改变UCCS今天和下一代学者的研究文化。通过这些转变，CREST项目旨在促进科学知识的持续进步，因为更多不同的声音有助于国家研究议程。CREST项目的具体目标是：1)积极影响妇女的研究经验和生产力；2)改变UCCS的研究政策和评估结构，以更充分地支持女性参与研究；3)谨慎地减少研究空间和过程中的偏见。为了推进这些目标，CREST项目将侧重于两个以过去的问题分析为基础的倡议，并采用交叉方法。倡议1的重点是建立响应性和包容性的研究基础设施。倡议2侧重于重塑研究政策、实践和评估结构。CREST项目将采用复杂的评价和评估方法，向其他新兴的高研究活动机构提出数据驱动的建议，以减轻限制妇女职业发展的研究不平等现象。CREST项目提供了一个独特的机会，可以测试现有循证战略的可复制性，同时适应和解决COVID-19对妇女研究的短期和长期影响。CREST项目有潜力推动国家研究议程，使更多的妇女参与新思想和新技术的发现。NSF ADVANCE项目旨在通过识别和消除阻碍学术机构中不同教师充分参与和进步的组织障碍来促进性别平等。阻碍公平的组织障碍可能存在于政策、过程、实践以及组织文化和气候中。ADVANCE“适应”奖为高等教育的学术、非营利机构以及非学术、非营利组织适应和采用循证战略提供支持。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

It is imperative that the U.S. have a thriving academic research community. Yet, women and minority faculty in science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) and the social behavioral sciences (SBS) face significant barriers to their productivity, intellectual impact, and career progression. For the U.S. to remain competitive, innovative, and responsive to global needs, it is important for universities to support inclusive and equitable participation of diverse researchers. The University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) ADVANCE Adaptation program, named Project CREST, aims to significantly enhance the research capacity and opportunity of women faculty in STEM and SBS. Project CREST draws from proven strategies from previously funded ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Projects at Montana State University, West Virginia University, Seattle University, and Georgia Tech. The goal is to use these evidence-based strategies to build a responsive and inclusive research culture at UCCS, the largest university serving southern Colorado. Project CREST will focus on systemic reform efforts that aim to transform the culture of research at UCCS today and for the next generation of scholars. With these transformations, Project CREST aims to result in the sustained advancement of scientific knowledge, as more diverse voices contribute to the national research agenda.The specific aims of Project CREST are: 1) positively impact women’s research experiences and productivity; 2) change the research policies and evaluation structures at UCCS to support women’s research participation more fully; and 3) vigilantly mitigate biases within research spaces and processes. To advance these aims, Project CREST will focus on two initiatives that are grounded in past problem analyses and employ an intersectional approach. Initiative 1 focuses on building responsive and inclusive research infrastructure. Initiative 2 focuses on reshaping research policy, practices, and evaluation structures. Project CREST will employ sophisticated evaluation and assessment methods to make data-driven recommendations to other emerging high research activity institutions for how to mitigate research inequities that limit women’s career advancement. Project CREST provides a unique opportunity to test the replicability of existing evidence-based strategies while adapting to and addressing the short and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on women’s research. Project CREST has the potential to advance the national research agenda by including more women in the discovery of new ideas and new technologies. The NSF ADVANCE program is designed to foster gender equity through a focus on the identification and elimination of organizational barriers that impede the full participation and advancement of diverse faculty in academic institutions. Organizational barriers that inhibit equity may exist in policies, processes, practices, and the organizational culture and climate. ADVANCE "Adaptation" awards provide support for the adaptation and adoption of evidence-based strategies to academic, non-profit institutions of higher education as well as non-academic, non-profit organizations.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.