EDU Core Research (ECR: CORE)

Overview

The EHR Core Research (ECR) program offers this ECR:Core solicitation and invites proposals for fundamental research (curiosity-driven basic research and use-inspired basic research) that contributes to the general, explanatory knowledge that underlies STEM education in one or more of the three broadly conceived Research Areas: Research on STEM Learning and Learning Environments, Research on Broadening Participation in STEM fields, and Research on STEM Workforce Development. Within this framework, the ECR program supports a wide range of fundamental STEM education research activities, aimed at learners of all groups and ages in formal and informal settings. 

ECR is a fundamental research program that supports both curiosity-driven basic and use-inspired basic research. As such, proposals submitted to this ECR:Core solicitation must have strong potential to make important contributions to general, explanatory knowledge (e.g., theories) pertaining to STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, or STEM workforce development. Fundamental research generates knowledge and understanding with the potential for broad relevance. By contrast, applied research, which ECR does not fund, aims to generate knowledge primarily or solely with specific relevance (e.g., to a particular curriculum or technology) with direct and immediate implications for practice. The potential implications of ECR fundamental research for improving STEM education practice may be indirect and long-term rather than direct and immediate. Indeed, the impact on practice might only be realized long after the end of a given project’s funding period. ECR:Core projects may also influence other intermediate research domains and communities, both basic and applied, before affecting practice. Whether they include curiosity-driven basic or use-inspired basic research, all successful ECR:Core proposals will focus on the advancement or refinement of foundational knowledge for STEM education.

ECR:Core Research Areas 
The ECR:Core portfolio spans three broad and overlapping Research Areas that map to the organizational structure of EHR investments: 
 

1. Research Area I – Research on STEM Learning and Learning Environments 

This ECR:Core solicitation supports fundamental research projects that advance general, explanatory knowledge and understanding about STEM teaching and learning in the many environments and contexts in which such teaching and learning take place. Studies may inform or draw upon research from multiple disciplines that study learning at the level of the learner, the teacher, the learning environment, or the broader institutional or systemic context, as well as other organizations or individuals that may influence STEM learning.

2. Research Area II – Research on Broadening Participation in STEM 

This ECR:Core solicitation supports fundamental research investigating issues related to broadening participation in STEM education and the STEM workforce. Broadening participation research may focus on the individual and/or the organizational factors that positively or negatively impact individuals from diverse groups in STEM. The phrase “diverse groups” refers to people of various races and ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and ability who are currently underrepresented in their participation in STEM education and the STEM workforce. In STEM education and workforce contexts, this includes, but is not limited to Blacks/African Americans, Latino/Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders, women and girls, and persons with disabilities. Other populations might include English-language learners, veterans, individuals from low-resourced areas, individuals that identify as members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) community, and/or individuals facing challenging socio-economic circumstances. While race, ethnicity, gender, ability, and other identities are listed separately in the previous two sentences, ECR recognizes that these identities do not exist in isolation from each other. Depending on the research questions proposed, the intersection of one or more of these identities may be considered when developing research studies, collecting, and analyzing data, and drawing conclusions from research. 

3. Research Area III – Research on STEM Workforce Development

The ECR:Core solicitation invites proposals with a wide range of disciplinary perspectives and welcomes fundamental research proposals across the three research areas. Proposals submitted to ECR:Core often fall into one or more of the following research topic clusters. This list of research topic clusters is neither exhaustive nor mutually exclusive, and the program is open to other topic clusters that advance fundamental knowledge across the three research areas. 

•    Diversity, equity, access, and inclusion in STEM education and the workforce. 

•    Cognitive and neural underpinnings of STEM learning. 

•    Discipline-based education research in STEM fields. 

•    Factors at the institutional, structural, organizational, societal, and systemic levels that affect STEM teaching, learning, and participation in STEM education and the workforce. 

•    Factors at the cultural, affective, psychological, and demographic levels that affect STEM teaching, learning, and participation in STEM education and the workforce. 

•    Research on technology-enabled learning. 

•    Studies of the diffusion of knowledge and research on the translation and implementation of advances in STEM education and workforce development. 

•    Advances in methodology, measurement, and assessment in STEM education and workforce development research. 

•    Policy research and research that builds on and expands the theoretical foundations for evaluating STEM education and workforce development initiatives. 

•    Other topics that involve fundamental research in STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.

ECR:Core Proposal Types 
ECR:Core welcomes and supports pilot studies, synthesis projects, and conferences related to advancing fundamental knowledge in one or more of the three Research Areas. 

1. Pilot Studies are small-scale, preliminary studies that investigate one or two components of a larger fundamental STEM education study that may be underdeveloped. Pilot study proposals may include high risk strategies or methods that need exploration (piloting) before further research is justified. Pilot studies are considered Level I proposals. 
2. Synthesis Proposals combine fundamental knowledge and findings on a topic of critical importance to STEM learning, education, broadening participation, or workforce development. Proposals should place particular emphasis on the goals and outcomes of the synthesis and the dissemination plan. 
3. Conference Proposals plan for well-focused meetings related to the ECR goals to advance fundamental research in STEM learning, education, broadening participation, or workforce development. Proposals should include a conceptual framework for the conference, draft agenda, categories of possible participants, the outcomes or products that will result, and how these products serve the fundamental research goals of the ECR program.

The amount of funding and duration requested in proposals submitted to this ECR:Core solicitation should align with the maturity of the proposed work and the size and scope of the empirical effort. The program has three levels of funding with a range of budget sizes, and proposals may request a duration of 3 to 5 years for any level: 

• Level I proposals may request up to $500,000; 
• Level II proposals may request up to $1,500,000; 
• Level III proposals may request up to $2,500,000. All proposals should justify the level of funding and duration in the project description.

The amount of funding allocated to ECR:Core Proposal Types: 

• Pilot studies: should request less than $500,000 and up to a three-year grant period
• Synthesis proposals may be budgeted at Level I or Level II and thus can request up to $1,500,000
• Conference proposals can request from $25,000 to $99,000