Collaborative Research: E-CORE RII: Strengthening Maine's Research Ecosystem and Pathways Through Strategic Capacity Building

This project's vision and goals reflect a statewide needs assessment that included Maine’s Jurisdictional Steering Committee. Statewide project partners include the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, University of Maine, University of Southern Maine, University of Maine at Fort Kent, and Southern Maine Community College.

These partners will leverage current and evolving infrastructure investments to enhance the growth of the Research & Development (R&D) ecosystem in Maine. The project includes four synergistic cores that aim to support building additional research capacity in Maine. The administrative core will advance diversity, coordination, evaluation, reporting, growth, and sustainability in the state.

The K-16/workforce readiness core will address STEM worker shortages and develop pathways to broaden the participation of institutions and individuals in the state’s research ecosystem. These efforts will focus on Primarily Undergraduate Institutions, Emerging Research Institutions, and youth from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

The academic facilities and research infrastructure core will invest in early career faculty, incentivize collaboration across organizations and disciplines, and strengthen R&D through seed grants that align with Maine’s Science and Technology plan. The economic development and use-inspired core will generate new knowledge about research translation and how to measure and communicate the impact of specific R&D investments to inform decision-makers.

Team science is built into the project to support its leaders and program participants, including graduate students and postdocs. The overarching societal benefit of the project is the development of an enhanced and productive research ecosystem that fully engages different institution types and sectors.

This E-CORE RII project will advance understanding of how to increase R&D competitiveness in rural areas. Building strong networks across organizations will create and sustain an inclusive statewide network connecting major research efforts and individuals. The project has potential to generate new, actionable knowledge about how synergistic interventions, integrated across four cores that undergird research capacity, can strengthen the research ecosystem within Maine specifically, and, more generally, within rural states with limited and highly distributed research and STEM assets.

The project includes a framework for an evidence-based initiative designed to prepare STEM faculty in Indigenous knowledge and foster systemic changes in Maine’s institutions of higher learning and subsequently its STEM workforce. Additionally, project cores will deploy convergent research approaches grounded in sociocultural learning theory and research-to-practice partnerships to generate new knowledge regarding (i) collaboration among STEM educators, (ii) pathways to STEM education, (iii) acquisition of STEM content, and (iv) Indigenous Sciences integration into the undergraduate curriculum through dialogues led by Cultural Knowledge Keepers.

Short-term outcomes of the project will include: a new Indigenous Science program; new professional development programs for educators, particularly those who serve underrepresented youth with authentic STEM research experiences; and research and work-readiness experiences for undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers. Longer-term outcomes include: improved faculty retention and related increases in faculty productivity; fuller participation in research by institutions across the state; improved stakeholder understanding of the positive impacts of R&D investment; greater engagement and retention of students, faculty, and staff historically underrepresented in STEM; a more robust integration of Research-Practice Partnerships that strengthen and sustain education, training, and professional development for Maine’s STEM workforce; and more start-up businesses, entrepreneurial capacity, and commercialization outcomes.

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.