ECR Hub: Advancing the Long-Term Potential of Fundamental Research

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As a 5-year resource center, the EHR Core Research – Resource Coordination Hub (ECR Hub) is designed to advance the ways in which NSF’s ECR Core (ECR) and ECR Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR:BCSER) programs can better use and support fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. ECR-funded research has the potential to address pressing national problems by developing foundational knowledge that can guide and inform the broader set of federal STEM education investments. To help realize that long-term potential, the ECR Hub has two central goals: (a) extend the influence and reach of existing ECR investments (e.g., existing research results, existing ECR methods training institutes) and (b) provide ECR career development opportunities to current and potential grantees. The ECR Hub will conduct outreach to researcher communities and institutions currently underrepresented in the ECR portfolio.The ECR Hub will target three core, immediate audiences: current ECR grantees, prospective ECR grantees, and stakeholders in other NSF Education and Human Resources (EHR) programs reached via coordinating with other EHR resource hubs. The ECR Hub will engage, support, and build connections among and across these audiences through a coordinated set of six key project activities: (1) identifying the needs of a diverse ECR grantee community, (2) cataloging and synthesizing past and current ECR research, (3) building research networks and information sharing for current grantees, (4) conducting outreach and broadening participation of prospective grantees, (5) consolidating and disseminating resources from ECR methods training institutes, and (6) building cross-hub collaborations to advance long-term ECR program goals. The American Institutes for Research is the lead institution for the ECR Hub, working in close partnership with scholars from Morgan State University, Northwestern University, and Georgia State University. Partner to Improve will serve as the external evaluator, and an institutionally diverse and multidisciplinary advisory board will help guide the ECR Hub goals and activities.This project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The program supports the accumulation of robust evidence to inform efforts to understand, build theory to explain, and suggest intervention and innovations to address persistent challenges in education.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.