EAGER: Celebrating the successes and identifying the obstacles faced by innovative and entrepreneurial underrepresented women of color

该奖项对有色人种女性在STEM（科学、技术、工程、数学）领域的创新和创业所面临的成功和障碍进行探索性研究。在交叉性框架内，本研究将通过深度访谈和对有色人种女性（URWOC）创新者和企业家的焦点小组进行。本研究将有色人种女性定义为那些自认为是非裔美国人/黑人、拉丁裔/西班牙裔/墨西哥裔和土著/阿拉斯加原住民/夏威夷原住民的女性，以更好地理解：(1)URWOC创始人的背景以及他们如何对创办STEM企业感兴趣；2) URWOC所有者/创始人启动和坚持其企业/创新，选择授权或出售其企业/创新的策略；3)从事STEM创新和创业的URWOC小组在交叉性方面的异同（I&amp；E）；4) URWOC在教育教育方面的独特经历和挑战；5)如何增加URWOC在教育教育领域的数量，重点是为旨在使教育教育中代表性不足的群体多样化的国家倡议提供援助。这项研究将支持创建理论健全而实用的框架，以了解URWOC创新者和企业家在STEM领域的经验。反过来，这些见解将用于通过创造成果将研究与实践相结合，这些成果有可能使各种利益相关者参与共同创造解决方案，重点是增加URWOC在STEM创新和创业（I&amp；E）中的数量。本研究填补了综合我国高校大学生在STEM领域交叉性与创业创新相关文献的重要空白，并记录了全国高校大学生在STEM i & &；E领域构成的历史变化。这些发现将为更有力的调查提供信息和联系，以了解关键因素如何影响URWOC，这些人正在从事独特的经历，使他们能够成功，并增强他们克服典型的种族、阶级和性别压迫问题的能力。研究结果将为STEM教育和STEM创业研究人员、利益相关者和STEM领导层提供关键信息，用于制定政策，评估多样性倡议的进展，以建立一个充满活力和强大的URWOC社区。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。

This EAGER award conducts exploratory research on the successes and obstacles faced by innovative and entrepreneurial women of color in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics). Situated within the intersectionality framework, this research will be conducted via in-depth interviews and focus groups with Underrepresented Women of Color (URWOC) innovators and entrepreneurs. This research defines Women of Color as those women who identify as African-American/Black, Latinx/Hispanic/Chicana, and Indigenous/Native Alaskan/ Native Hawaiian to better understand: (1) the background of URWOC founders and how they became interested in starting a STEM venture; 2) the strategies that URWOC owner/founders employed to start and persist in their ventures/innovations, choose to license, or sell their ventures/innovations; 3) similarities and differences in intersectionality across URWOC groups who are engaged in STEM innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E); 4) the unique experiences and challenges that URWOC endure in their I&E endeavors and 5) how to increase the number of URWOC in I&E with a focus on providing assistance to national initiatives aimed at diversifying underrepresented groups in I&E. This research will support the creation of theoretically robust yet practical frameworks for understanding the experiences of URWOC innovators and entrepreneurs in STEM. In turn, these insights will be used to integrate research with practice via the creation of outcomes that have the potential to engage a variety of stakeholders in co-creating solutions focused on increasing the number of URWOC in STEM Innovation & Entrepreneurship (I&E).This research project fills an important gap in synthesizing the literature on intersectionality and entrepreneurship and innovation in STEM for URWOCs and documenting the historical changes of the composition of URWOC in STEM I&E across the nation. Findings will inform and connect to more robust investigations of how key factors impact URWOC who are engaging in unique experiences that enable their success and enhance their ability to overcome typical issues of race, class, and gender oppression for URWOC in STEM I&E. Research findings will provide critical information for use by STEM education and STEM entrepreneurship researchers, stakeholders, and leadership n STEM in policy formation, assessment of the progress of diversity initiatives toward building a vibrant and robust community of URWOC.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.