High Return on Investments in Scientist-Educator Partnerships: Broader Impact Strategies That Endure and Propagate

Tackling the broader impact section of a research proposal need not be a dilemma that "rears its ugly head" with each proposal deadline. By investing in partnerships with informal science education (ISE) organizations, researchers can establish a foundation for efficient, high quality, research-based educational outreach (EO) that can help them fulfill their broader impact obligations for years to come. Just as an interdisciplinary research project requires collaboration among scientists from a variety of disciplines, a research project with exemplary EO requires partnerships with those who specialize in science education. By engaging in such partnerships scientists gain access to professionals who have expertise in translating research topics into concept-centered programs, exhibits and online resources, and to the diverse student, teacher and public audience reached through ISE. By leveraging the intellectual and material resources of researchers and educators, these potentially long-lived relationships provide an efficient and effective means for achieving broader impact. Ultimately, the efficacy of this investment strategy depends on relieving the researcher of the time consuming burden of seeking out appropriate partners, initiating partnerships and conferring with science educators on potential projects. Recognizing this barrier to scientists' participation, the California Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (CACOSEE) has adopted a unique approach - one in which CACOSEE serves primarily as a catalyst and facilitator of researchers EO activities rather than as an EO provider. We have apprised ourselves of the programs, interests and needs of a carefully selected group of ISE organizations and used this information as the basis for creating a spectrum of EO opportunities for researchers. These options are flexible, scalable and easily customized to fit the research interests, time constraints and budgetary limitations of any researcher. Through e-mail and personal inquiry we actively recruit PIs who are contemplating or preparing proposals. We rapidly review the research proposed, assess the PIs' goals and preferences with respect to broader impact, and present them with a small number of well fitting options. PIs then indicate their preferences, and we make the necessary connections with individuals and organizations, write/edit the relevant proposal text, budgets, justifications, work plans, support letters, coordinate with the responsible business offices, and make sure that both the PIs and the education partners are happy with the final plan. Business is flourishing as are the scientist-educator partnerships catalyzed through COSEE. As the COSEE network matures, these catalytic activities are rapidly becoming a national network effort. An unanticipated outcome of our work is that our initial "brokering" sometimes ignites scientist-educator interactions that expand and propagate without additional effort on our part and in some cases even without our knowledge. So, while catalyzing long-lived partnerships has always been our goal, we are excited and motivated by this phenomenon that we hope will one day be a hallmark of a transformed academic culture in which scientists' investments in educational outreach have ever higher returns.