Conference: Rapid Mobilization of Engineering Education Researchers to Respond to Emerging National Priorities

About This Grant

This project will convene a national community of engineering workforce development researchers to grow capacity in responding to ongoing disruptions from the emergence of GenAI and other shifting technology-policy landscapes. A virtual workshop approach will ensure that early career scholars and those located at institutions with limited infrastructure for adaptation will receive coordinated support for maintaining the coherence and relevance of their work amid rapid change. This work will advance understanding of how research communities adapt to uncertainty, technological disruptions, and policy fluctuations. Building capacity for responsiveness will produce a nimbler engineering workforce, strengthening national security and economic prosperity now and in the future. Through a virtual workshop series and conference, this project will (1) Convene a national Community of Transformation (CoT) of Engineering Education Research (EER) scholars and key stakeholders to assess and address the impacts of recent policy changes on research design, funding, and framing; (2) Co-design a suite of open-access protocols and toolkit to facilitate reframing, managing uncertainty, and perspective-taking for field-wide adaptation; (3) Provide structured, networked mentorship for early-career scholars and graduate students, using the protocols/toolkit to cultivate strategies for adaptive scholarship. (4) Investigate the impact of the tools and protocols in a virtual conference, with attention to framing agency, policy-responsiveness, and adaptability. Participants will develop a suite of pivoted research agendas with support from peer mentoring, example materials, and real-time review. This research will extend CoT theory to co-design sustainable responses, adaptive strategies, and practices that promote creativity, advancing scholarship on responsive research ecosystems and characterizing sustainable adaptation in early career stages and varied institutional contexts. The project will answer the following research questions: (1) In what ways do members adapt their research agendas with problem framing supports? (2) To what extent do EER scholars frame their research as policy-responsive? How does this develop through participation in a CoT? (3) In what ways do members display framing agency as they reframe their research agendas? By answering these research questions, this project will grow national capacity to continue EER work in alignment with current federal guidance, expand participation in EER, and ensure that promising innovations are not lost due to misalignment or lack of institutional navigation capacity. This project will build enduring capacity to respond constructively and creatively to a volatile policy landscape and rapid technological change. Through a structured series of virtual events and the formation of a national mentoring network, the project will foster the professional growth of researchers—especially those early in their careers or at institutions with fewer resources—who might otherwise struggle to navigate abrupt changes in funding guidance and public expectations. The project will lower barriers to participation by supporting a distributed CoT, offering multiple points of engagement and modes of contribution. By equipping participants with strategies for framing policy-responsive research problems, the project helps sustain scholarly integrity, creativity, and openness. Publicly shared tools and protocols, including worked examples of reframed research agendas, will extend these benefits to the broader EER community. The inclusion of voices from Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) and rural institutions ensures that this shared infrastructure offers a model for expanding access to strategic guidance. The project will contribute to the stability and adaptability of the U.S. STEM education ecosystem by enabling researchers to prepare future professionals in ways that remain aligned with evolving national goals. Through iterative peer review, mentoring, and dissemination of tangible resources, this work will enhance the field’s ability to remain flexible and impactful over time—ultimately preserving a varied and dynamic research landscape that will support workforce development and public trust in science and engineering. 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.