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

导言：为了解决代表性不足人口的国内成员人数严重短缺的问题（即，非裔美国人、西班牙裔、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，研究生教育和教授联盟（AGEP）计划由NSF于1998年发起。在过去7年中，该方案从1998年的几个联盟发展到2005年全国范围内的27个AGEP联盟。虽然这些AGEP联盟需要相互合作以更好地实现计划目标，但交易成本和财政限制使它们无法在区域或国家基础上更有效地合作。这种限制可能会阻碍AGEP计划的充分潜力和发展，因为单个联盟可能会错过识别和分享最佳做法和从其他AGEP联盟吸取的教训的机会。本项目的目的是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AGEP联盟之间在纽约州的合作，作为一项试点研究，并为加强AGEP联盟的全国一体化的更大提案奠定经验基础。为了实现这些目标，在全国AGEP社区加强合作和分享最佳做法和资源，我们设计了两个阶段来实施我们的研究：第一阶段的重点是为纽约AGEP联盟的新兴伙伴关系建立一个试点合作实验室。这一试点NYAGEP合作实验室将作为国家AGEP合作实验室的原型，在对试点数据进行评估后，可能会提出国家AGEP合作实验室。在拟议项目的第二阶段，我们将向东海岸其余三个AGEP联盟提供试点合作实验室的成员资格。同样，这个东海岸AGEP合作实验室试点项目将帮助我们在计划国家AGEP合作实验室项目时吸取宝贵的经验教训。在网络基础设施和合作实验室发展的文献指导下，我们建议围绕合作实验室实践研究三个总体领域。我们将这些领域描述为：（1）人对人;（2）人对信息;（3）人对设施。这些领域中的每一个都对AGEP联盟的需要至关重要。将对试点研究进行形成性和总结性评价，以提供有助于就项目后续阶段作出决定的分析，最终建立全国性别平等和增强伙伴关系合作实验室。将评估的领域包括行政能力、规划和研究、附属机构能力建设和加强外联能力。该项目除了在能力建设和提高效率方面对参与AGEP的联盟产生直接影响，以促进实现其目标，支持更多代表性不足的人口获得STEM博士学位该项目在区域和国家一级产生了更广泛的影响。大学和他们的学生群体一般将受益于参与大学之间合作的机会增加，包括棕色袋子，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。在国家一级，从这一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，而且可以应用于其他跨学科和多机构行为者的松散网络和联盟。

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.