Broadening Participation Working Group

Background

The Broadening Participation Working Group (BPWG) was established in April 2007 to develop plans to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in NSF programs and to broaden the pool of reviewers for NSF proposals.

The working group had representatives from all of the NSF research directorates, along with the Offices of Cyberinfrastructure; Polar Programs; Integrative Activities; International Science and Engineering; General Counsel; and the Office of Budget, Finance and Award Oversight. The working group co-chairs were Celeste Rohlfing and Victor Santiago.

Charter

The goal of broadening participation of underrepresented groups in the sciences and engineering has long been a priority at NSF, and is repeatedly referenced in major policy documents, including the Grant Proposal Guide, the Strategic Plan, and the NSF Budget Request. In the Grant Proposal Guide, an emphasis is placed on the importance of broadening participation as an element in the review of proposals, and references to broadening participation and increasing diversity can be found throughout NSF's new Strategic Plan. This concept is expressed first as a core value, where NSF describes itself as "Broadly Inclusive: seeking and accommodating contributions from all sources while reaching out especially to groups that have been underrepresented; serving scientists, engineers, educators, students and the public across the nation; and exploring every opportunity for partnerships, both nationally and internationally." The commitment to broadening participation is further manifested in the Strategic Plan via a variety of investment strategies related to the Stewardship Goal, including:

• Expanding efforts to broaden participation from underrepresented groups and diverse institutions across all geographical regions in all NSF activities, and


• Improving our processes to recruit and select highly qualified reviewers and panelists.

Guided by these aspects of the much broader Stewardship Goal, NSF established a more specific broadening participation goal, which is to expand efforts to increase participation from underrepresented groups and diverse institutions throughout the United States in all NSF activities and programs. The two performance measures related to this goal for FY 2007 are:

• Develop a plan to increase participation in NSF programs from underrepresented groups, which includes defining existing baseline data, and


• Develop a plan to broaden the pool of reviewers for NSF proposals.

The working group completed the plan in 2007. This became the "Framework for Action" report.

Inquiries

For further information concerning NSF's Broadening Participation programs, please contact:

Dr. Fae Korsmo
National Science Foundation
Phone: 703-292-8003
E-mail: fkorsmo@nsf.gov