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Report on the Evaluation of NSF's EPSCoR Program
Preface | Executive Summary | Table of Contents
Part A: EPSCoR Program and Its Evaluation | Part B: Evaluation Findings | Part C: Policy and Program Implications
References

PREFACE

This document presents COSMOS Corporation’s final evaluation report of the National Science Foundation’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). The evaluation was conducted under Task Order 1, Contract No. RED 94-52970. Conrad Katzenmeyer is the contracting officer’s technical representative. Dr. Susan Gross, succeeded by Mary Sladek, was the program officer for the evaluation, conducted as a task order under the contract.

The evaluation team was led by Drs. Robert K. Yin and Irwin Feller, co-project directors. Other contributors included Cheryl Sattler, Dana Edwards, Lynne Adduci, Lee Carpenter, Meg Gwaltney, Tasanee Ross-Sheriff, Lynette Tucker, and Jennie Heard (editor). In addition, Professors Patricia Gumport (Associate Professor of Education, Stanford University) and Edward Hackett (Associate Professor, Department of Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) prepared commissioned background papers to augment the evaluation design materials.

A workgroup, comprising individuals with extensive participation in the several facets of the EPSCoR program, also provided insights to the evaluation team about the workings of the EPSCoR program. The members of this workgroup were Dr. Judith Bailey, University of Maine; Dr. Colin Bennett, University of South Carolina; Dr. Philip Boudjouk, North Dakota State University; Dr. Hans Brisch, Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education; Dr. Daryle Busch, University of Kansas; Dr. Delwood Collins, University of Kentucky; Dr. Collis R. Geren, University of Arkansas; Dr. Randolph V. Lewis, University of Wyoming; Dr. Ralph Powe (deceased), Mississippi State University; and Dr. Barbara Wright, University of Montana.

An advisory committee to the project also provided critical oversight and constructive recommendations to preliminary versions of the evaluation plan. The members of the committee were Dr. James R. Durig, University of Missouri at Kansas City; Dr. William Massy, Stanford University; Dr. Norine Noonan, Florida Institute of Technology; Dr. Karen Seashore Louis, University of Minnesota; and Dr. Reginald Wilson, American Council on Education. Dr. Daryl Chubin of NSF also participated in the committee meetings and provided policy insights and guidance concerning the evaluation from its inception. The evaluation team especially acknowledges Dr. Chubin’s contributions.

Throughout the evaluation project, the COSMOS team benefited from the assistance of Richard Anderson, Bruce Reiss (retired), and Jim Hoehn, NSF-EPSCoR program officers who gave generously of their time and expertise in responding to numerous questions about EPSCoR’s history, current operations, and databases. Additional assistance has been provided by Brandon Cushing and Tom Trumbull, Quantum Research Corporation, who made available data on the proposal submission activity of EPSCoR faculty. Finally, an anonymous peer reviewer made substantial comments on an earlier version of the report, markedly helping to improve the presentation of the findings.

The assistance of others does not remove the authors’ full and final responsibility for this report.