EDU Core Research (ECR:Core)

Overview

ECR investments in fundamental research are designed to advance the discovery and testing of general, explanatory knowledge that supports STEM education.

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 supports and encourages multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to developing foundational knowledge for STEM education. The ECR program seeks to create a multidisciplinary portfolio and to fund projects from investigators representing a broad range of disciplinary backgrounds and approaches, including those from fields more typically associated with other NSF directorates and offices. The program encourages investigators to draw on all relevant disciplinary literatures, and to create teams that reach across disciplinary bounds when appropriate. This emphasis on multi- and inter-disciplinarity is consistent with the NSF Big Idea on Convergence: https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/big_ideas/convergent.jsp. However, this ECR:Core solicitation does not require that individual proposals be multi- or interdisciplinary.

ECR supports theoretically, methodologically, and analytically thorough research. The research questions or issues to be addressed in ECR:Core proposals should drive the choice of research design. Research designs may be qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods. The research design must be described in sufficient detail to allow evaluation of its appropriateness to address the research questions or hypotheses proposed. The research could involve the collection of new data, secondary analyses using extant datasets, or meta-analyses/meta-syntheses. In addition, this ECR:Core solicitation supports research to develop innovative research methods, measurement approaches, and conceptual models to assess existing and emerging phenomena, and to test theories that inform core scientific questions about STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The Institute of Education Sciences (IES)-NSF Common Guidelines for research may serve as a guide in this regard: https://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf13126.

ECR embraces fundamental research involving all people in all STEM learning environments, including STEM workplaces. Proposals to ECR:Core could study people of any age (from infancy through the lifespan) or grade level (pre-K to graduate) in the context of any virtual, formal, or informal learning environment.

ECR:Core Research Areas
The ECR:Core portfolio spans three broad and overlapping Research Areas that map to the organizational structure of EDU investments: (1) Research on STEM Learning and Learning Environments, (2) Research on Broadening Participation in STEM fields, and (3) Research on STEM Workforce Development.

• Research Area I – Research on STEM Learning and Learning Environments
• Research Area II – Research on Broadening Participation in STEM
• Research Area III – Research on STEM Workforce Development

ECR:Core Research Topic Clusters
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.

• Broadening participation in STEM education and the STEM workforce as defined by NSF’s statutory mission.
• 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

• Pilot Studies
• Synthesis Proposals
• Conference Proposals

Who May Serve as PI: There are no restrictions or limits.
Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization: There are no restrictions or limits.
Limit on Number of Proposals per PI or co-PI: There are no restrictions or limits.

Award: The amount of funding and duration requested in proposals submitted to the ECR:Core solicitation should align with the maturity of the proposed work and the size and scope of the empirical effort. The solicitation 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: (1) Level I proposals may request up to $500,000; (2) Level II proposals may request up to $1,500,000; (3) Level III proposals may request up to $2,500,000. 

Letters of Intent: Not required.
Cost Sharing Requirements: Inclusion of voluntary committed cost sharing is prohibited.