New STEP PI Workshop

Goals of the Workshop To help new PIs get their projects off to a good start To establish a “network” among the 2012 cohort of STEP PIs for communication, support, and possible collaboration

Agenda 8:30-9:00 Introductions 9:15-10:00 STEP Program and Reporting Requirements 10:00-10:30 Break 10:30-11:15 STEP Data reporting 11:15-11:45 Best Practices in Project Administration 11:45-1:30 Lunch (off site) 1:30-1:45 Advisory Boards 1:45-2:30 Best Practices in Data Tracking and Evaluation 2:30-2:45 3rd Year Review 2:45-3:00 Break 3:00-3:45 STEP Central Web Portal 3:45-4:00 Workshop Evaluation and Wrap-Up

Authorized by Congress in 2002 Goal is to increase the number of STEM graduates by the end of the five-year funding period Can’t pledge to work with kindergartners For 4-year institutions, graduates are defined as BS graduates For 2-year institutions, graduates are defined as STEM graduates or as transfers to STEM disciplines at a university

Can focus on increasing graduates from underrepresented groups Primary effort is: Recruitment Retention A combination of the two Can focus on increasing graduates from underrepresented groups But you don’t have to do this Only the numbers really matter

Build on proven strategies Data, Data, Data! Innovation is not a requirement Data, Data, Data! Know your institution Know your students Know what the problems are

Goals should be believable Know your institutional data Evaluation should include assessment of individual components If your graduation rates increase, what contributed to this?

Should have strong institutional support Provost must serve as the chair of the internal advisory board Are not required to be 100% sustainable The more that is sustainable, the better

STEP Funding Projects are funded as either: Years 1-3, plus year 4, plus year 5 Years 1-4, plus year 5 NSF money has a six-year “shelf-life”

STEP Funds The GPG and AAG outline “allowable” expenditures Personnel salaries Student support Travel Consultants (evaluator) Supplies Not paper and pencils or other things that would come out of overhead

Participant Support Direct support of participants on the project Student scholarships Meals at workshops Housing for summer bridge programs No overhead allowed Participant support funds should be kept separate from other grant funds

Budget Changes Generally up to 25% of the funds can be “moved around” without getting permission from NSF—depends on your institutional policies From salaries to travel From supplies to consultants Etc. Exception: Funds into and out of participant support require NSF approval Generally, NSF approval is required to move funds into the foreign travel category

Reporting Requirements Annual report required each year through Fastlane NSF-wide requirement No “getting around” this requirement Will receive automatically-generated email reminders If a report is overdue, you won’t be able to receive additional funds from NSF Annual reports are due 3 months prior to the anniversary date of the project Final reports are due 3 months after the closing date of the project

Annual Reports Fill in the forms in Fastlane Add attachments sparingly Program Officers don’t have enough time to read through long reports Information required in the following categories: Participants--those who worked on the project Activities and Findings--significant undertakings and results Publications and Products--journal publications or other products that have been developed Contributions--furthering the field Conference Proceedings Special Requirements

Highlights (formerly Nuggets) Highlights are used by the NSF each year to draw attention to particularly successful projects that have been funded Many projects will never be highlighted A small percentage of projects are featured Call for highlights issued each spring Should be brief and “exciting” Send to your program officer and others at the foundation will take it from there

Additional STEP reporting Preparation of a report during your third year Third year review in March (2015 for you) Report reviewed by a team of three Should include data from previous reports and from database entry

Annual Data Tracking In addition to the annual reports in Fastlane, STEP projects are required to input data to the national STEP database each year Starts in the second year of your project This data is for STEP Program evaluation, not evaluation of individual projects in STEP Your Program Officer does NOT have access to this database You will likely want to repeat some of the data in your annual reports

Annual Data Tracking CDs have information regarding the information required for the database Baseline data reported from July 1, 2011-June 30, 2012 First year data reported from July 1, 2012-June 30, 2013 Reporting period for this entire set of data is February 2014-April 2014