NSF Grant Proposal Support

Are you writing an education research grant proposal to the National Science Foundation? Did you know that many NSF programs require that you include plans for an external, objective assessment of your research?

ETR can help! Our team has nearly 20 years of experience doing NSF-funded research on strategies to broaden participation in STEM fields.

Here’s how we can support your proposal or funded project:

• Evaluation Design: Write a plan to address NSF requirements and the Common Guidelines for Education Research and Development
• Oversight for Continuous Improvement: Provide regular guidance on project design, implementation, research methods and dissemination to help you stay on track to meet project goals for intellectual merit and broader impact.
• Content Knowledge: Synthesize relevant research to inform research design and situate your findings.
• Project Management: Support the development and use of systems and processes for tracking project work and improving collaborative processes.
• Data Collection and Analysis: Use both quantitative and/or qualitative data to address research questions and build knowledge in the field.

Our approach is grounded in the following principles:

• Cultural Sensitivity: our team brings a range of experiences and perspectives and we continually reflect on how our own biases influence our work
• Theoretically Driven: our analysis is grounded in theoretical frameworks that consider individuals within the context of relationships and systems of power
• Methodological rigor: we take a systematic and transparent approach to collecting and analyzing data
• Responsiveness: we listen to our partners needs and meet them where they are at
• Flexibility: we offer different levels of cost and scope

"ETR brings decades of experience and expertise to the work of evaluating the outcomes and impacts of STEM education initiatives. They have a tool for every challenge to evaluation they might run into. The teams from ETR bring with them a passion for STEM learning and equity that we want in any partner, but also a true sense of collaboration and an incredible willingness to listen and adapt to needs; every project with ETR is a 'research-practice partnership'." -Steve Bean, DigitalNEST

“The ETR team has been great partners on NIH and NSF projects. The projects were large and had multiple sites, nevertheless their expertise was extremely valuable in our research design and implementation. Their expertise helped us be successful and is enhanced by a collaborative approach to problem solving.” -Ricardo Valerdi, University of Arizona

"It has been great working with ETR as evaluators on our NSF project. They have been true partners--helping us think through our design and implementation, as well as documenting and evaluating outcomes. The ETR team brings decades of experience, along with a deep commitment to equity and opportunity for historically marginalized communities. They have nuanced and sophisticated understanding of the dynamics of community-engaged research, and have been true collaborators in our project." Chris Benner, University of California Santa Cruz

“The team at ETR cares deeply about students and teachers, and they are clearly committed to supporting school districts. They design their evaluation research to address our priorities and questions with precision, and they share the findings with us in ways that we can use immediately and in our future planning." -Julie Edwards, Pajaro Valley Unified School District

For more information, contact Jill Denner, Senior Research Scientist, at jill.denner@etr.org.