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How to write a research plan: Step-by-step guide

Last updated

30 January 2024

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Today’s businesses and institutions rely on data and analytics to inform their product and service decisions. These metrics influence how organizations stay competitive and inspire innovation. However, gathering data and insights requires carefully constructed research, and every research project needs a roadmap. This is where a research plan comes into play.

There’s general research planning; then there’s an official, well-executed research plan. Whatever data-driven research project you’re gearing up for, the research plan will be your framework for execution. The plan should also be detailed and thorough, with a diligent set of criteria to formulate your research efforts. Not including these key elements in your plan can be just as harmful as having no plan at all.

Read this step-by-step guide for writing a detailed research plan that can apply to any project, whether it’s scientific, educational, or business-related.

• What is a research plan?

A research plan is a documented overview of a project in its entirety, from end to end. It details the research efforts, participants, and methods needed, along with any anticipated results. It also outlines the project’s goals and mission, creating layers of steps to achieve those goals within a specified timeline.

Without a research plan, you and your team are flying blind, potentially wasting time and resources to pursue research without structured guidance.

The principal investigator, or PI, is responsible for facilitating the research oversight. They will create the research plan and inform team members and stakeholders of every detail relating to the project. The PI will also use the research plan to inform decision-making throughout the project.

• Why do you need a research plan?

Create a research plan before starting any official research to maximize every effort in pursuing and collecting the research data. Crucially, the plan will model the activities needed at each phase of the research project.

Like any roadmap, a research plan serves as a valuable tool providing direction for those involved in the project—both internally and externally. It will keep you and your immediate team organized and task-focused while also providing necessary definitions and timelines so you can execute your project initiatives with full understanding and transparency.

External stakeholders appreciate a working research plan because it’s a great communication tool, documenting progress and changing dynamics as they arise. Any participants of your planned research sessions will be informed about the purpose of your study, while the exercises will be based on the key messaging outlined in the official plan.

Here are some of the benefits of creating a research plan document for every project:

Project organization and structure

Well-informed participants

All stakeholders and teams align in support of the project

Clearly defined project definitions and purposes

Distractions are eliminated, prioritizing task focus

Timely management of individual task schedules and roles

Costly reworks are avoided

• What should a research plan include?

The different aspects of your research plan will depend on the nature of the project. However, most official research plan documents will include the core elements below. Each aims to define the problem statement, devising an official plan for seeking a solution.

Specific project goals and individual objectives

Ideal strategies or methods for reaching those goals

Required resources

Descriptions of the target audience, sample sizes, demographics, and scopes

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Project background

Research and testing support

Preliminary studies and progress reporting mechanisms

Cost estimates and change order processes

Depending on the research project’s size and scope, your research plan could be brief—perhaps only a few pages of documented plans. Alternatively, it could be a fully comprehensive report. Either way, it’s an essential first step in dictating your project’s facilitation in the most efficient and effective way.

• How to write a research plan for your project

When you start writing your research plan, aim to be detailed about each step, requirement, and idea. The more time you spend curating your research plan, the more precise your research execution efforts will be.

Account for every potential scenario, and be sure to address each and every aspect of the research.

Consider following this flow to develop a great research plan for your project:

Define your project’s purpose

Start by defining your project’s purpose. Identify what your project aims to accomplish and what you are researching. Remember to use clear language.

Thinking about the project’s purpose will help you set realistic goals and inform how you divide tasks and assign responsibilities. These individual tasks will be your stepping stones to reach your overarching goal.

Additionally, you’ll want to identify the specific problem, the usability metrics needed, and the intended solutions.

Know the following three things about your project’s purpose before you outline anything else:

What you’re doing

Why you’re doing it

What you expect from it

Identify individual objectives

With your overarching project objectives in place, you can identify any individual goals or steps needed to reach those objectives. Break them down into phases or steps. You can work backward from the project goal and identify every process required to facilitate it.

Be mindful to identify each unique task so that you can assign responsibilities to various team members. At this point in your research plan development, you’ll also want to assign priority to those smaller, more manageable steps and phases that require more immediate or dedicated attention.

Select research methods

Research methods might include any of the following:

User interviews: this is a qualitative research method where researchers engage with participants in one-on-one or group conversations. The aim is to gather insights into their experiences, preferences, and opinions to uncover patterns, trends, and data.

Field studies: this approach allows for a contextual understanding of behaviors, interactions, and processes in real-world settings. It involves the researcher immersing themselves in the field, conducting observations, interviews, or experiments to gather in-depth insights.

Card sorting: participants categorize information by sorting content cards into groups based on their perceived similarities. You might use this process to gain insights into participants’ mental models and preferences when navigating or organizing information on websites, apps, or other systems.

Focus groups: use organized discussions among select groups of participants to provide relevant views and experiences about a particular topic.

Diary studies: ask participants to record their experiences, thoughts, and activities in a diary over a specified period. This method provides a deeper understanding of user experiences, uncovers patterns, and identifies areas for improvement.

Five-second testing: participants are shown a design, such as a web page or interface, for just five seconds. They then answer questions about their initial impressions and recall, allowing you to evaluate the design’s effectiveness.

Surveys: get feedback from participant groups with structured surveys. You can use online forms, telephone interviews, or paper questionnaires to reveal trends, patterns, and correlations.

Tree testing: tree testing involves researching web assets through the lens of findability and navigability. Participants are given a textual representation of the site’s hierarchy (the “tree”) and asked to locate specific information or complete tasks by selecting paths.

Usability testing: ask participants to interact with a product, website, or application to evaluate its ease of use. This method enables you to uncover areas for improvement in digital key feature functionality by observing participants using the product.

Live website testing: research and collect analytics that outlines the design, usability, and performance efficiencies of a website in real time.

There are no limits to the number of research methods you could use within your project. Just make sure your research methods help you determine the following:

What do you plan to do with the research findings?

What decisions will this research inform? How can your stakeholders leverage the research data and results?

Recruit participants and allocate tasks

Next, identify the participants needed to complete the research and the resources required to complete the tasks. Different people will be proficient at different tasks, and having a task allocation plan will allow everything to run smoothly.

Prepare a thorough project summary

Every well-designed research plan will feature a project summary. This official summary will guide your research alongside its communications or messaging. You’ll use the summary while recruiting participants and during stakeholder meetings. It can also be useful when conducting field studies.

Ensure this summary includes all the elements of your research project. Separate the steps into an easily explainable piece of text that includes the following:

An introduction: the message you’ll deliver to participants about the interview, pre-planned questioning, and testing tasks.

Interview questions: prepare questions you intend to ask participants as part of your research study, guiding the sessions from start to finish.

An exit message: draft messaging your teams will use to conclude testing or survey sessions. These should include the next steps and express gratitude for the participant’s time.

Create a realistic timeline

While your project might already have a deadline or a results timeline in place, you’ll need to consider the time needed to execute it effectively.

Realistically outline the time needed to properly execute each supporting phase of research and implementation. And, as you evaluate the necessary schedules, be sure to include additional time for achieving each milestone in case any changes or unexpected delays arise.

For this part of your research plan, you might find it helpful to create visuals to ensure your research team and stakeholders fully understand the information.

Determine how to present your results

A research plan must also describe how you intend to present your results. Depending on the nature of your project and its goals, you might dedicate one team member (the PI) or assume responsibility for communicating the findings yourself.

In this part of the research plan, you’ll articulate how you’ll share the results. Detail any materials you’ll use, such as:

Presentations and slides

A project report booklet

A project findings pamphlet

Documents with key takeaways and statistics

Graphic visuals to support your findings

• Format your research plan

As you create your research plan, you can enjoy a little creative freedom. A plan can assume many forms, so format it how you see fit. Determine the best layout based on your specific project, intended communications, and the preferences of your teams and stakeholders.

Find format inspiration among the following layouts:

Written outlines

Narrative storytelling

Visual mapping

Graphic timelines

Remember, the research plan format you choose will be subject to change and adaptation as your research and findings unfold. However, your final format should ideally outline questions, problems, opportunities, and expectations.

• Research plan example

Imagine you’ve been tasked with finding out how to get more customers to order takeout from an online food delivery platform. The goal is to improve satisfaction and retain existing customers. You set out to discover why more people aren’t ordering and what it is they do want to order or experience. 

You identify the need for a research project that helps you understand what drives customer loyalty. But before you jump in and start calling past customers, you need to develop a research plan—the roadmap that provides focus, clarity, and realistic details to the project.

Here’s an example outline of a research plan you might put together:

Project title

Project members involved in the research plan

Purpose of the project (provide a summary of the research plan’s intent)

Objective 1 (provide a short description for each objective)

Objective 2

Objective 3

Proposed timeline

Audience (detail the group you want to research, such as customers or non-customers)

Budget (how much you think it might cost to do the research)

Risk factors/contingencies (any potential risk factors that may impact the project’s success)

Remember, your research plan doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel—it just needs to fit your project’s unique needs and aims.

Customizing a research plan template

Some companies offer research plan templates to help get you started. However, it may make more sense to develop your own customized plan template. Be sure to include the core elements of a great research plan with your template layout, including the following:

Introductions to participants and stakeholders

Background problems and needs statement

Significance, ethics, and purpose

Research methods, questions, and designs

Preliminary beliefs and expectations

Implications and intended outcomes

Realistic timelines for each phase

Conclusion and presentations

How many pages should a research plan be?

Generally, a research plan can vary in length between 500 to 1,500 words. This is roughly three pages of content. More substantial projects will be 2,000 to 3,500 words, taking up four to seven pages of planning documents.

What is the difference between a research plan and a research proposal?

A research plan is a roadmap to success for research teams. A research proposal, on the other hand, is a dissertation aimed at convincing or earning the support of others. Both are relevant in creating a guide to follow to complete a project goal.

What are the seven steps to developing a research plan?

While each research project is different, it’s best to follow these seven general steps to create your research plan:

Defining the problem

Identifying goals

Choosing research methods

Recruiting participants

Preparing the brief or summary

Establishing task timelines

Defining how you will present the findings

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Engineering Graduate Studies

Formulating Project Goals

Jump to: Activity Examples | Resources

Defining your project goals and linking sub-aims to the overall purpose is very important to direct your research and will help you create a roadmap for your degree to keep on track.   

The activity below will guide you to…  

• Develop a clear project objective with linked sub-goals, deliverables, and milestones.  

Important Definitions  

Goal/Objective –  The long-term objective of your thesis and a high-level aim; should evolve out of your research question, and be measurable and achievable.  

Sub-Objectives/Aims –  Major steps you need to complete to achieve your goal.  

Sub-Steps –  An implementation strategy for your sub-objectives; specifies what tasks or experiments you will do in each sub-objective (these are the sort of items on your “to-do” list).   

Milestone –  Marks a specific point in a timeline and the progress towards an output.  

Deliverable –  A tangible or intangible object produced as a result of the project, e.g. a document (manuscript, patent), a prototype, a dataset.   

Suggested Activity – Identify Goals and Project Planning Elements  

Estimated time: 30 minutes   

• Reflect on your own research group. What are the overarching goals of the group? How is your project contributing to that goal versus others in your group?  What major steps (sub-aims) will allow you to achieve your project objective? Why are these sub-aims appropriate (how will they contribute to your overall project objective) and why is their order appropriate?    
• Write out your thesis objective, sub-goals, and if possible specific milestones and deliverables using ( Resource 1 ) .  Focus on the next 1-1.5 years of your project, for PhD students just focus on your first two aims.   Share this with a peer in your group or with your supervisor for discussion and feedback.  

Activity Examples

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5StarEssays. (2020). Writing a research proposal—Outline, format and examples. In Complete guide to writing a research paper . Retrieved from https://www.5staressays.com/blog/writing-research-proposal

Walliman, N. (2011). Research methods: The basics . Routledge—Taylor and Francis Group.

Google Scholar  

Olujide, J. O. (2004). Writing a research proposal. In H. A. Saliu & J. O. Oyebanji (Eds.), A guide on research proposal and report writing (Ch. 7, pp. 67–79). Faculty of Business and Social Sciences, Unilorin.

Thiel, D. V. (2014). Research methods for engineers . University Printing House, University of Cambridge.

Book   Google Scholar  

Mouton, J. (2001). How to succeed in your master’s and doctoral studies. Van Schaik.

Lues, L., & Lategan, L. O. K. (2006). RE: Search ABC (1st ed.). Sun Press.

Bak, N. (2004). Completing your thesis: A practical guide . Van Schaik.

Sadiku, M. N. O. (2000). Numerical techniques in electromagnetics . CRC Press.

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Engineering Performance Goal Examples

10 examples to help your team succeed

10 examples of engineering performance goals

Help your eng team succeed.

As an engineering manager, setting achievable and measurable performance goals for your engineering team is one of the most impactful steps that you can take when it comes to improving your team's performance .

However, setting goals for your development team that will actually encourage improvement isn't as simple as choosing goals at random. If you want your team members to grow and evolve from striving toward the personal goals that you provide, you need to put some thought into the goals that you set.

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To help you start providing your engineering team with development goals to sharpen their skills and performance, we'll discuss how to set goals using the proven SMART goals framework , then jump into 10 helpful examples of engineering performance goals.

The value of engineering performance goals

Setting ambitious goals and milestones for your team members that are challenging — yet achievable — is something that offers a number of substantial benefits . For one, providing your team members with performance goals can help them hone their skills and abilities. It's easy to become complacent when you don't have a clear objective to strive toward, and complacency does not breed improvement. By providing your team members with development goals, you can ensure that they are always working to sharpen their engineering skills.

Setting challenging and achievable goals can also help your team members build confidence, since nothing builds confidence quite like overcoming a difficult challenge. And when your team members are confident in taking on difficult tasks, their performance is sure to improve.

Looking for goal tracking software? Here's our comparison list . 🏆

Setting the right goals can help you create a more unified and satisfied team.

When team members understand the specific goals that they are working toward (and how reaching those goals will help move the company forward), they feel much more connected to the bigger picture.

They’re able to draw direct connections between their daily or weekly efforts and key outcomes at a higher level. This leads to more unified and motivated team members who understand the importance of their contributions.

What are SMART goals for engineers?

Created in 1981, the SMART goals framework has long been considered one of the most effective, beneficial templates for setting goals. The SMART goals framework can be applied to both short-term and long-term business goals. Setting goals using the SMART goals framework is best explained by looking at the meaning of the SMART acronym:

• Specific: The first qualification of SMART goals is that they need to be specific and well-defined. If your team members don't actually understand the goal they are working toward, they aren't likely to yield high-performing outcomes.
• Measurable: The second qualification of a SMART goal is that it needs to be easily measurable via KPIs, key results, or other metrics. Ensuring that the goals you give your team are measurable means that you will be able to evaluate their progress toward those goals in a performance review.
• Achievable: Ambitious goals certainly have their place in the workplace, but it’s equally important for goals to be achievable. If the goals you set are too difficult or impossible to achieve, you risk frustrating and discouraging your team.
• Relevant: You don't want to set goals just for the sake of setting them. Instead, the goals you set need to be relevant to the overall goals of your business, and achieving the goals you set should actually yield positive outcomes.
• Time-bound: If someone is given an unlimited amount of time to reach a goal then it's not really a goal at all. For this reason, the final qualification of SMART goals is that they need to be bound to a specific time frame.

By setting goals that meet all of these qualifications, you can make sure that the goals you are providing to your engineering team are carefully designed to help them grow their skills and advance the company forward.

How should goals be set?

The SMART goals framework is a great place to start the process, but it's not the only element of goal-setting that needs to be addressed. For one, it's important to define who is responsible for setting goals for your team.

As their manager, you may choose to decide which goals to set completely on your own. However, it can also be beneficial to involve your team in the goal-setting and allow them input on the goals they would like to pursue.

It’s also essential to ensure that you’re setting and updating goals regularly as business needs and priorities change. In fact, according to data from Forbes, companies that set performance goals every quarter see 31% greater returns from their performance process than companies that only set performance goals annually.

Once you have set goals for your team, the next step is to track your team's progress and evaluate their results. This is why it’s essential to choose measurable goals complete with performance indicators that you can use to track your team's progress.

Goal tracking software like the one offered by Range can make this process easier.

You get a bird’s-eye view of all of your team’s goals so you can see progress at a glance.

Similarly, you can see if goals are not being met and can easily modify them if needed. Using software that ties in your entire team is beneficial, as it’s an easy way to keep everyone on the same page — whether you’re in the office or working remotely and communicating asynchronously.

Engineering performance goals: 10 examples to build stronger teams

Choosing the right engineering goals for your team is a task that is typically easier said than done. By applying the SMART goals framework to these ten engineering performance goal examples, though, you should be well on your way to selecting goals that will actually help your team achieve key results.

Coding is at the heart of just about everything a software development team does, and is by far one of the most important skills for your team members to hone. As a result, goals designed to improve your team's coding skills are some of the most beneficial goals that you can set. Examples of coding goals include:

• Add a new feature to an app or software solution within the next month
• Improve the load time of an app by two seconds within the next week

You can even take your coding goals a step further by breaking them down into goals that focus on quality or ownership:

Code quality

Code quality refers to the prevalence of bugs in code and its overall performance and quality. An example of a code quality goal would be instructing your team to reduce the number of bugs detected within an app by 5% within the next two weeks.

Code ownership

Code ownership refers to a single team member being responsible for every aspect of a codebase. An example of a code ownership goal would be instructing a single team member to complete an entire codebase within a month.

2. Technical skills

In addition to coding, there are several other technical skills that an engineer needs to master, including data structures and algorithms, networking basics, testing, and encryption. A technical skills goal, therefore, can be any goal meant to help your team hone their technical skills. Examples of technical skills goals include:

• Encrypt and secure a database to the point that it’s able to survive penetration testing within the next month
• Engineer a machine learning project from start to finish within the year
• Organize raw data into a functional database within a week

3. System design

System design is an overarching principle that requires plenty of coding and technical skills. System design goals are typically related to large-scope achievements that impact an entire product or system. Examples of system design goals include:

Redesign a software application within the next month in order to achieve a faster time to market

• Add a list of new integrations to an application within the next year

Software testing is a vital step in the development process, ensuring that teams find and address any serious bugs within the software before it’s released to its end users. From ensuring proper test coverage to performing unit tests on individual units of code, there are several key skills that go into making an engineer talented at testing code. Examples of testing goals designed to help engineers improve their testing abilities include:

• Learn a new programming language within the next quarter so that they are able to utilize additional testing avenues
• Identify the source of an error in a program within the next month

5. Debugging

Once thorough testing has identified a program's bugs, fixing those bugs through debugging is the next step. However, debugging is a skill all its own and is something that can lead to additional problems if not performed correctly. Examples of professional goals designed to help engineers improve their debugging skills include:

• Resolve all of the bugs discovered in an application within the next month
• Fix enough bugs to improve user engagement by 25% within the next quarter

6. Personal

In addition to goals designed to help the company, a good software engineer needs to have their own goals as well. Setting personal goals for individual members of your engineering team is a great way to motivate team members to improve their personal skills and performance. Examples of personal goals for software developers include:

• Learn a new programming language within the next two months
• Mentor a new engineering team member to the point that they are comfortable working on their own within a month
• Fix four medium-level bugs this quarter

7. Team management

Good teamwork capabilities and team management skills are important qualities for software engineers. Team management skills are especially essential for your senior-level engineers who will be tasked with leading various team projects. Examples of goals designed to help engineers improve their team management skills include:

• Recruit a new member to your engineering team and train them to the point that their performance is satisfactory within the next three months
• Delegate project tasks among team members
• Lead a project for the first time, successfully

8. Team synergy

Team management is important for the senior-level engineers who will be leading teams and projects, but good team synergy is vital for every member of your engineering team . Examples of goals that are meant to help an engineering team build better synergy include goals such as:

• Complete team-building exercises with satisfactory outcomes
• Work together to complete PERT or GANTT charts so that everyone's role is carefully defined

9. Networking

The right connections can offer a lot of value to a software development team, helping them form strategic partnerships and serving as outside sources of guidance. This makes goals designed to help your team expand their professional network highly beneficial. Examples of networking goals meant to grow an engineer's professional connections include:

• Schedule lunch with a senior-level engineer from another team at least once every month
• Attend a networking conference with the goal of securing at least one new connection per team member

10. Professional development

Professional development refers to the development of soft skills such as time-management skills, problem-solving, and communication. Examples of goals designed to help engineers bolster their professional development include goals such as:

• Master the lean development methodology in order to eliminate common development challenges
• Complete a project in 24 fewer hours than it took to complete a similar project in the past

The benefits of engineering performance goals

The benefits of setting good performance goals for your engineering team are multi-faceted. For one, all of the goals we've listed above are designed to help engineers improve specific skills that will make them more valuable members of your team and company.

Next, meeting performance goals is also something that can grow a team member's confidence and assure them that they are ready to take on more demanding responsibilities.

Finally, setting goals for your team is one of the best ways to track the performance of individual team members and gauge who is ready for additional responsibilities/promotions.

Improve engineering team goals with Range

Setting beneficial goals is one of the most helpful things you can do as an engineering team leader. However, goal-setting is only one element of good team management.

The good news is that Range makes it easier to manage your engineering team, no matter where your team members are located.

With goals in Range , you can:

• Create accountability by sharing information and updates across the team
• Easily track how daily work connects to higher-level goals
• Set a goal for metrics, objectives, and KPIs
• With hashtags, see all artifacts, updates, and day-to-day progress in one place
• Share goal updates with leaders via Slack or email

Range offers all of the features you need to manage multiple projects handled by both remote and in-house team members in a way that is straightforward and efficient, helping you reach your goals more effectively.

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What Is an Engineering Goal in a Science Project?

Test Your Knowledge on Middle School Science

An engineering goal in a science project is a requirement that the student demonstrate a real-world problem that could be solved as a result of his project.

Engineering is Applied Science

Engineering has been defined as “design within constraint,” and engineers must use science to solve problems while dealing with constraints on material strength, budget, environmental factors and more.

While a science project might have interesting findings, often instructors want students to think in terms of practical and applicable outcomes. What will your project accomplish? How well can it accomplish that goal?

Design Process

Accomplishing your engineering goal will require a well-thought out design to your project.

The “spark” of creativity is a hallmark of the engineering process. You will be judged on how original your goal is.

A compelling engineering goal will focus on an important societal need, such as carbon sequestration or making solar energy more economical.

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About the Author

Mason Kaho has been writing for over 15 years, since he was an editor for his school newspaper and worked in his university's office of communications. He has a master's degree in public policy and has published many online items for science-based organizations.

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Engineering Goals: Enhancing Problem-Solving and Creativity in Research

The importance of engineering goals in research plan examples.

Adding engineering goals to science projects helps students sharpen their problem-solving skills and creativity. These goals are also important in enabling them to create technological solutions that can benefit humanity.

Defining engineering goals is essential for the success of any science project. This article provides 10 helpful engineering goals research plan examples that are SMART (specific, measurable, action-oriented, relevant, and time-based). It also discusses how to effectively track progress towards these goals.

Defining Engineering Goals

In engineering, goals revolve around the design and development of technologies and systems that make our lives more efficient. Engineers use creativity, innovation and problem-solving to design solutions that solve real-world problems. They must also consider constraints, like budgets, materials strength and environmental factors when creating engineering goals.

It is important to set goals that are measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound (SMART). This allows engineers to assess their progress and performance in an effective way. It also helps them to see how their work contributes to the company’s overall goals.

The best engineering goals focus on delivering results that are valuable to the company and its stakeholders. For example, a good engineering goal is to engage in continued education every year because it improves the skills of your team members and makes them better at their jobs. It is also a measurable goal because it is possible to track how many courses are taken. It is also a relevant goal because it will help the engineers advance in their careers.

Enhancing Creativity

Creating and defining engineering goals is crucial to the success of any science venture. Achieving these goals requires engineers to come up with innovative solutions that can meet a specific need or problem. They also need to be able to create solutions that are affordable, practical, and effective.

Developing creativity is an essential skill that should be encouraged in engineering teams. Creativity fosters collaboration, inspires innovation, and boosts employee engagement. It also provides a competitive advantage and drives business growth.

To help promote creativity, you should set up an environment that encourages open communication and experimentation. You should also provide tools and resources to support creative thinking. This can include breakout spaces, brainstorming zones, and a variety of collaborative tools. You can also provide rewards and recognition for those who show a high level of creativity. This will motivate them to continue being creative in their work.

Boosting Project Management

Having a clear understanding of goals is an essential part of success in any career, especially for engineers. When team members do not have clarity on the objectives of a project, they may feel overwhelmed or lose motivation. When the objectives of a project are SMART, they help engineers stay focused and on track to deliver creative outcomes.

To achieve an engineering goal, teams must often come up with innovative ideas and solutions. They must think outside the box to address problems such as building a bridge 50 feet above ground or developing an engine that uses less fuel than its current counterpart.

Defining engineering goals enables teams to break down the research aims into smaller, more tractable goals that will together answer the broader scientific question proposed. This makes it easier to manage resources and monitor progress, especially when working in a collaborative environment. Measuring success also enables the team to assess whether they are on track to meet their objectives within the set timeframe.

Measuring Success

Defining engineering goals is a great way to set clear objectives for your science project. It can also boost your project management skills by helping you to better allocate resources and track deadlines. Aside from that, defining engineering goals can help you measure the success of your work.

The incorporation of engineering goals into science projects can sharpen students’ problem-solving skills and promote creativity. This can be especially useful for projects that require a high level of innovation.

The key to a successful research goal is that it should be specific enough that you know when you have reached your answer, practical in that you could actually implement your findings in real-world applications, and actionable in that you can make decisions based on your results. You should also try to limit the number of goals you define in any given project. Having too many will prevent you from developing a clear and focused research plan that can achieve your goal.

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• December 2023
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College of Engineering

Strategic plan research.

GOALS: 1) To lead signature areas of research and economic development to drive breakthroughs that have societal impact, and 2) To train graduate students to become outstanding technical leaders and innovative researchers.

Focus and build on strengths of the college, in collaboration with centers, institutes, and other colleges/units

1. Invest in strategic research areas of strength by targeted faculty hiring and fostering research collaborations and interaction with centers, institutes other colleges and units, and industry.

2. Maintain world-class research facilities; strategic investment in new infrastructure to enable research in current and emerging grand challenges in engineering.

3. Actively coordinate writing proposals for larger, multidisciplinary research grants in identified research areas. 

4. Increase number of research and graduate student training proposals in targeted research areas.

Maintain strong research funding and identify new sources of support for research/graduate programs

1. Maintain strong numbers and sizes of research proposals submitted by faculty and research staff as PI’s, MPI’s, and co-I’s.

2. Continue to identify, monitor, and address barriers to student success.

3. Expand access to pre- and post-award support.  

Reward/support faculty, staff and students for achieving excellence in research and contributions to mission of the college

1. Develop a fair metric widely accepted by the faculty and staff that properly values diverse contributions of faculty and staff to the College/University mission.

2. Develop a mechanism for broad appreciation of disciplinary and/or inter-disciplinary research contributions from faculty, staff, and students.

Focus on recruitment of high quality, diverse graduate student body 

1. Increase the number of graduate students, especially PhD students.

2. Improve recruitment practices of high-quality, diverse graduate student body across the college.

Focus on the educational/research experience and training/professional development of graduate students 

1. Facilitate inter-department collaboration and sharing of best practices for mentoring, enhancing URM and female student representation, professional development, social and leadership opportunities; writing support, etc.

2. Recognize and credit graduate students for their achievements.

3. Improve graduate student life in the college and university.

We can meet our research goals if we:

1. Maintain and enhance our leadership position on campus and beyond when confronting the grand challenges of the 21st Century

2. Support a collegiate culture in which all faculty, staff, and students advance the research mission through their pursuit of excellence

3. Enhance the quality, size, and diversity of the graduate student body while focusing on graduate student success

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Jen-Hsun and Lori Mills Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex Opening 2025

$200 million research facility will tackle global challenges with one of higher ed’s fastest supercomputers

Staff report

Oregon State University has embarked on an ambitious plan to build a $200 million research complex to tackle global challenges by harnessing team-based, transdisciplinary research in multiple areas, including artificial intelligence, materials science, and robotics.

The Jen-Hsun and Lori Mills Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex , targeted for opening in 2025, will support critical advances in priority areas such as climate science, sustainability, and water resources. World-class faculty and students at all levels will collaborate with and empower internationally top- ranked Oregon State programs such as forestry and oceanography, along with several in the College of Engineering. Collaborative innovation will also underpin research and teaching in support of the semiconductor industry and the broader technology sphere in Oregon and beyond.

The complex will be named in honor of two Oregon State Engineering alumni, Jen-Hsun “Jensen” Huang, ’84, and his spouse, Lori Mills Huang, ’85, following their gift of $50 million to the OSU Foundation. The Huangs’ gift was announced the evening of Oct. 14, as the OSU Foundation launched the university’s second-ever universitywide fundraising and engagement campaign.

Designs for the complex are already underway, and construction could begin later this year. Plans call for a three-story, 150,000-square-foot facility to be erected on the northwest corner of the Corvallis campus, along Southwest Memorial Place and Monroe Avenue.

The beating heart of the complex will be a next-generation supercomputer, which will support faculty in addressing highly intricate, challenging computational problems. The complex will also boast a state-of- the-art clean room and other specialized research facilities — including laboratories for materials scientists, environmental researchers, and others throughout the university — as well as an extended- reality theater, a robotics and drone playground, high-tech water labs, and a do-it-yourself makerspace.

Oregon State’s new supercomputer — incorporating about 60 NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD and OVX SuperPOD systems — promises to be among the world’s fastest in a university setting, powerful enough to train the largest AI models and to perform sophisticated digital twin simulations. The water used to cool it will help heat more than 500,000 square feet of building space on the Corvallis campus.

Although the Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex is sure to stand out as a prominent new feature on the Corvallis campus landscape, its namesake donors are already well known at Oregon State, and far beyond.

Jensen and Lori Huang first met at Oregon State in the early 1980s, when they both were pursuing undergraduate degrees in electrical engineering. Graduating one year apart, the two would later be married, and they would go on to become one of the tech world’s most successful and most celebrated couples.

Jensen Huang is widely recognized as the leader of NVIDIA, the company he founded in 1993, which he has served since its inception as president, chief executive officer, and member of the board of directors. NVIDIA came to the attention of the world in 1999 with the introduction of the GPU, or graphics processing unit, which changed the face of computing forever.

Today, NVIDIA is a world leader in artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, transforming industries collectively valued at more than $100 trillion — including health care, transportation, and gaming — and profoundly impacting society. 

The Huangs trace their shared passion for technology and innovation back to their time at Oregon State.

“We discovered our love for computer science and engineering at OSU,” they said. “We hope this gift will help inspire future generations of students also to fall in love with technology and its capacity to change the world.”

The Huangs identify artificial intelligence in particular, among the many potentially world-changing technologies growing up in our midst, as having a unique power to propel important discovery and innovation across a broad spectrum of academic disciplines.

“AI is the most transformative technology of our time,” they said. “To harness this force, engineering students need access to a supercomputer, a time machine, to accelerate their research. This new AI supercomputer will enable OSU students and researchers to make very important advances in climate science, oceanography, materials science, robotics, and other fields.”

Scott Ashford, Kearney Dean of Engineering, says the complex and its supercomputer will help Oregon State stake its position as a world-leading university for artificial intelligence and robotics.

“It will transform not only the College of Engineering, but the entire university, and have an economic and environmental impact on the state of Oregon and the nation,” he said. “Oregon State faculty, along with collaborators from other universities, business, and state and federal agencies, will pursue techniques in the center’s clean room for making leading-edge computer chips. Robotics researchers and students will be able to use extended-reality theater-aided simulations of drones and robots operating within real-world settings.”

But that’s barely nicking the surface, when one considers the sheer variety and scope of research the complex will enable. For example, Ashford suggests that environmental and electronics researchers working together might design sensors for use at sea or in forests to monitor hard-to-track endangered species, then use AI to analyze the data gathered.

Oregon State University President Jayathi Murthy says the new facility will further efforts to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM education and research, uniting participants from different fields and backgrounds in a common cause.

“The Jen-Hsun Huang and Lori Mills Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex will be much more than a building,” Murthy said. “It will serve as a universitywide promise, and as a hub for advancing groundbreaking solutions for the betterment of humanity, the environment, and the economy.

“The complex will be a dynamic place where creative, driven faculty, students, and partners from business and other universities come together to solve critical challenges facing the state, nation, and world. We are thrilled by this extraordinary philanthropy and commitment to advancing research discovery and problem-solving.”

Edward Feser, provost and executive vice president at Oregon State, says the complex will build upon Oregon State’s distinction for highly collaborative, team-based research, education, and innovation to harness diverse expertise throughout the university.

“The Jen-Hsun Huang and Lori Mills Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex will be an incredible contributor to our state and world by supporting innovation, entrepreneurship and partnerships with industry and other higher education institutions,” Feser said.

Feser also identified the complex as a key component of efforts championed by federal, state, business, and academic leaders to support the competitiveness of Oregon’s semiconductor industry.

“OSU is committed to supporting the full workforce development pipeline for the sector, by partnering with community colleges and other Oregon universities to create seamless pathways to traditional and alternative credentials and by preparing bachelor through PhD degree graduates,” he said.

During the 2023 Oregon legislative session, Oregon State University will request $75 million in state-paid bonding to match philanthropic and university contributions for the complex. The university and OSU Foundation also will seek additional public, private sector, and philanthropic support for equipment, faculty support, and research programs within the complex. This will include funding to support targeted faculty hires and the university’s goals to increase diversity in STEM fields.

Sen. Ron Wyden, who along with former Gov. Kate Brown has been prominent in support of the state’s semiconductor industry, praised the university’s plans.

“It’s no secret that advanced computer chips are the linchpin of the 21st century economy,” Wyden said. “This state-of-the-art facility provides opportunity for Oregon State faculty and students to make generation-defining discoveries to push our tech industry forward. I am very excited for Oregon State to open this incredible facility and bring together the best and brightest to provide interdisciplinary solutions to complicated problems.”

Brown also voiced support for the collaborative innovation complex.

“Our state has benefited greatly from having a world-class research university like Oregon State University to allow us to develop further technological innovations and grow our high-tech workforce,” Brown said. “The collaborative innovation complex will further enable OSU’s world-class researchers and facilities to address some of Oregon’s most pressing issues, including semiconductor research and development, climate change and public health.”

OSU Foundation CEO and President Shawn Scoville praised the Huangs’ philanthropy.

“Lori and Jen-Hsun are exceptional Oregon State alumni and truly visionary philanthropists,” Scoville said. “They bring so much to the table. Every project they are involved in is improved because of their input, and OSU is the great beneficiary of their experience and active engagement. It is a joy and an honor to work with them.”

Believe it.

Campaign aims to raise $1.75 billion to support priority initiatives

This past fall, Oregon State University and the OSU Foundation launched Oregon State’s second universitywide fundraising campaign, Believe It: The Campaign for Oregon State University.

Donors have already committed more than $1 billion to the campaign, which seeks to raise $1.75 billion to support Oregon State’s priority initiatives.

Led by the OSU Foundation, the Believe It campaign is planned to support $460 million for student support, including scholarships, fellowships, and experiential learning funds; $500 million for faculty positions and academic program support; $320 million for new facilities, renovations, and equipment; $250 million for emerging strategic initiatives; and $220 million for programmatic support, including outreach and extension programs throughout Oregon and beyond.

“As Oregon’s public land grant university, Oregon State is ideally suited to serve Oregonians in all communities, and provide solutions to challenges that face the nation and world,” said President Jayathi Murthy. “The phenomenal support already provided to the Believe It campaign is a testament to Oregon State’s donors and their belief in the university’s ability to help transform the lives of learners of all ages and promote social, cultural, and economic progress within Oregon and beyond.”

The university and the OSU Foundation began working on the Believe It campaign in 2017 with then- President Edward Ray, aligning campaign priorities with the university’s Vision 2030 and Strategic Plan 4.0. Donors to date have created nearly 500 new scholarship, fellowship, and student support funds, an increase of 26% since the campaign began.

“We concluded our first campaign in 2014 having raised $1.14 billion, but just as important, we created a catalyst for philanthropy at OSU,” said Shawn L. Scoville, OSU Foundation president and CEO.

The campaign also seeks to grow and deepen the involvement of alumni and other supporters in ways that advance student success and a sense of belonging to the larger community of more than 200,000- alumni and 300,000 parents and friends worldwide, Scoville said.

Find out more at fororegonstate.org .

About the Huangs

Jensen Huang founded NVIDIA in 1993 and has served since its inception as chief executive officer, president, and a member of the board of directors.

Starting out in PC graphics, NVIDIA helped build the gaming market into the world’s largest entertainment industry. The company’s invention of the GPU in 1999 made possible real-time programmable shading, which defines modern computer graphics, and later revolutionized parallel computing. More recently, GPU deep learning ignited modern AI — the next era of computing — with the GPU acting as the brain of computers, robots, and self-driving cars that can perceive and understand the world.

Huang was inducted into the College of Engineering’s Hall of Fame in 2013. He is a recipient of the Semiconductor Industry Association’s highest honor, the Robert N. Noyce Award; the IEEE Founder’s Medal; the Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award; and honorary doctoral degrees from Taiwan’s National Chiao Tung University, National Taiwan University, and Oregon State University. He was included in Time magazine’s 2021 list of the world’s 100 most influential people. In 2019, Harvard Business Review ranked him No. 1 on its list of the world’s 100 best-performing CEOs over the lifetime of their tenure. In 2017, he was named Fortune’s Businessperson of the Year.

Prior to founding NVIDIA, Huang worked at LSI Logic and Advanced Micro Devices. He holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Huang has said the highlight of his time at Oregon State was meeting Lori, when they were paired as lab partners in an electrical fundamentals class.

“That was the most important, single event of OSU, and of my life,” he said.

Lori Huang is president of the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation, supporting higher education, public health, and STEM initiatives across the U.S. alongside local community organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Huang Foundation previously gave $5 million to build a laboratory for cancer research at Oregon State, and $30 million for the Jen-Hsun Huang Engineering Center at Stanford University. The Huangs joined Melinda Gates in supporting AI4ALL, a national nonprofit working to increase diversity and inclusion in AI. They have also made major educational grants to Johns Hopkins University and City Year San Jose.

The Huangs have two children.

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Facilities Management

UI seeks permission to plan new hydroscience research building to grow program

The University of Iowa College of Engineering’s IIHR—Hydroscience & Engineering is a world-renowned program, and a proposed facility expansion would keep Iowa at the forefront of fluids-related research.

The UI is seeking approval from the Iowa Board of Regents at its April 24-25 meeting to proceed with planning the construction of a new building on the Oakdale campus for future growth and development of the IIHR hydroscience program. 

Princeton University

Princeton engineering, can language models read the genome this one decoded mrna to make better vaccines..

By Scott Lyon

April 8, 2024

Princeton researchers led by Mengdi Wang have developed a language model to home in on partial genome sequences and optimize those sequences to improve function for the development of mRNA vaccines and other therapies. Illustration from Adobe Stock.

The same class of artificial intelligence that made headlines coding software and passing the bar exam has learned to read a different kind of text — the genetic code.

That code contains instructions for all of life’s functions and follows rules not unlike those that govern human languages. Each sequence in a genome adheres to an intricate grammar and syntax, the structures that give rise to meaning. Just as changing a few words can radically alter the impact of a sentence, small variations in a biological sequence can make a huge difference in the forms that sequence encodes.

Now Princeton University researchers led by machine learning expert Mengdi Wang are using language models to home in on partial genome sequences and optimize those sequences to study biology and improve medicine. And they are already underway.

In a paper published April 5 in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence, the authors detail a language model that used its powers of semantic representation to design a more effective mRNA vaccine such as those used to protect against COVID-19.

Found in Translation

Scientists have a simple way to summarize the flow of genetic information. They call it the central dogma of biology. Information moves from DNA to RNA to proteins. Proteins create the structures and functions of living cells.

Messenger RNA, or mRNA, converts the information into proteins in that final step, called translation. But mRNA is interesting. Only part of it holds the code for the protein. The rest is not translated but controls vital aspects of the translation process.

Governing the efficiency of protein production is a key mechanism by which mRNA vaccines work. The researchers focused their language model there, on the untranslated region, to see how they could optimize efficiency and improve vaccines.

After training the model on a small variety of species, the researchers generated hundreds of new optimized sequences and validated those results through lab experiments. The best sequences outperformed several leading benchmarks for vaccine development, including a 33% increase in the overall efficiency of protein production.

Increasing protein production efficiency by even a small amount provides a major boost for emerging therapeutics, according to the researchers. Beyond COVID-19, mRNA vaccines promise to protect against many infectious diseases and cancers.

Wang, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and the principal investigator in this study, said the model’s success also pointed to a more fundamental possibility. Trained on mRNA from a handful of species, it was able to decode nucleotide sequences and reveal something new about gene regulation. Scientists believe gene regulation, one of life’s most basic functions, holds the key to unlocking the origins of disease and disorder. Language models like this one could provide a new way to probe.

Wang’s collaborators include researchers from the biotech firm RVAC Medicines as well as the Stanford University School of Medicine.

The Language of Disease

The new model differs in degree, not kind, from the large language models that power today’s AI chat bots. Instead of being trained on billions of pages of text from the internet, their model was trained on a few hundred thousand sequences. The model also was trained to incorporate additional knowledge about the production of proteins, including structural and energy-related information.

The research team used the trained model to create a library of 211 new sequences. Each was optimized for a desired function, primarily an increase in the efficiency of translation. Those proteins, like the spike protein targeted by COVID-19 vaccines, drive the immune response to infectious disease.

Previous studies have created language models to decode various biological sequences, including proteins and DNA, but this was the first language model to focus on the untranslated region of mRNA. In addition to a boost in overall efficiency, it was also able to predict how well a sequence would perform at a variety of related tasks.

Wang said the real challenge in creating this language model was in understanding the full context of the available data. Training a model requires not only the raw data with all its features but also the downstream consequences of those features. If a program is designed to filter spam from email, each email it trains on would be labeled “spam” or “not spam.” Along the way, the model develops semantic representations that allow it to determine what sequences of words indicate a “spam” label. Therein lies the meaning.

Wang said looking at one narrow dataset and developing a model around it was not enough to be useful for life scientists. She needed to do something new. Because this model was working at the leading edge of biological understanding, the data she found was all over the place.

“Part of my dataset comes from a study where there are measures for efficiency,” Wang said. “Another part of my dataset comes from another study [that] measured expression levels. We also collected unannotated data from multiple resources.” Organizing those parts into one coherent and robust whole — a multifaceted dataset that she could use to train a sophisticated language model — was a massive challenge.

“Training a model is not only about putting together all those sequences, but also putting together sequences with the labels that have been collected so far. This had never been done before.”

The paper, “A 5′ UTR Language Model for Decoding Untranslated Regions of mRNA and Function Predictions,” was published in Nature Machine Learning. Additional authors include Dan Yu, Yupeng Li, Yue Shen and Jason Zhang, from RVAC Medicines; Le Cong from Stanford; and Yanyi Chu and Kaixuan Huang from Princeton.

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Public Health Buckeyes: Angela Falconi

BSPH student combines passions for health care, policy

Falconi has been involved in CPH research and is an active member of Ohio State's Pilipino Student Association.

Meet Angela Falconi, a fourth-year student specializing in  environmental public health who aspires to advocate for others through public health policy.

What inspired you to pursue a public health education?

Growing up, I was surrounded by both medicine and public policy because of my parents. Since I was six, my father, a politician and elected official, had me act as his unofficial campaign staff—knocking on doors with him to speak to voters, sitting in on city council meetings and accompanying him to various events. My mother, a pediatric physician, inspired me to pursue a career in medicine by showing me the impact that she’s made on her patients and always encouraging me to learn more about the health care field. When choosing my major, it felt natural to me to combine policy and health into public health.

What public health topics are you passionate about?

“Your zip code determines your health.”

This is one of the most important phrases I have learned in my public health courses, and as a volunteer at Helping Hands Health and Wellness Center, a free clinic which provides health care services for the uninsured and underinsured. I see the realities of this phrase in the patients who I work with. 

As an aspiring elected official, I want to create health care reform which helps individuals the health care system has failed to provide with affordable service.

You spent last summer in Washington, D.C. interning in the U.S. Senate. What was that experience like?

I worked (there) through the IMPACT program, created by the US-Asia Institute in coordination with the Embassy for the Philippines for Filipino students interested in public policy. Working and living in D.C. was one of the best experiences I have had in my undergraduate career because I was able to learn about and research health care policy on the national stage, which is exactly what I hope to do in my future career.

What have you enjoyed most about being involved in research as a student?

I am a research assistant for the Consumer Access Project which utilizes a secret shopper survey of Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance marketplace plan networks to study these barriers and inequities, including disparities related to race. I have loved getting to work with  Wendy Xu as she has helped me learn more about the research process as well as how everyday Americans experience the health care system.

What kind of extracurricular activities are you involved in?

The Pilipino Student Association (PSA) has been my home away from home since the start of my time at Ohio State. It has not only allowed me to learn more about my Filipino culture, but I met my best friend through this organization. I have been involved in PSA in numerous roles: culture night coordinator, vice-president internal, president and now dance leader. 

As dance leader, I lead PSA’s tinikling team. Tinikling is a dance which involves two people beating, sliding, and tapping two bamboo poles on the ground while two people dance above the sticks, trying not to get caught in between them. Our latest performance from PSA’s culture show “Barrio” was in October. I choreographed, taught and performed the modern part of this dance!

What are your goals for the future?

I hope to not only assist individual patients as a physician, but I also hope to help others on the national scale by being an advocate as an elected official. I hope to apply the experiences and lessons that I have learned from my time at Ohio State into my future career in the field of health policy.

More news stories

Public Health Buckeyes: Kaitlyn Jones

Public Health Buckeyes: Molly Mills

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About The Ohio State University College of Public Health

The Ohio State University College of Public Health is a leader in educating students, creating new knowledge through research, and improving the livelihoods and well-being of people in Ohio and beyond. The College's divisions include biostatistics, environmental health sciences, epidemiology, health behavior and health promotion, and health services management and policy. It is ranked 29 th  among all colleges and programs of public health in the nation, and first in Ohio, by  U.S. News and World Report. Its specialty programs are also considered among the best in the country. The MHA program is ranked 8 th , the biostatistics specialty is ranked 22 nd , the epidemiology specialty is ranked 25 th and the health policy and management specialty is ranked 17 th .

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Science Advisor for Public Access (Program Director)

Application timeline, position summary.

The Office of Integrative Activities (OIA) within the Office of the Director at the National Science Foundation (NSF) announces a nationwide search to fill the Science Advisor for Public Access position.  The position coordinates agency responses to federal public access mandates, oversees development of the NSF Public Access Repository, coordinates with other agencies via involvement in the NSTC and other cross-agency groups, and contributes to the NSF Knowledge Management activity.

Formal consideration of interested applications will begin immediately and continue until a selection is made.

OIA works across disciplinary boundaries to lead and coordinate strategic programs and opportunities that: advance research excellence and innovation; develop human and infrastructure capacity critical to the U.S. science and engineering enterprise; and promote engagement of scientists and engineers at all career stages and the personnel who support them.

For more information on the NSF Public Access Initiative, see: https://new.nsf.gov/public-access  

Position Description

Serves as the primary representative and point of contact for the NSF Public Access Initiative and Open Science matters, in consultation with other concerned entities within the Foundation (e.g., Office of the Director, Office of General Counsel, etc.) and the members of the cross-agency Public Access and Open Science Working Group (PAOSWG).  Creates and maintains linkages to other NSF units and other Federal agencies in pursuit of the overall NSF mission.

Works closely with the NSF Chief Information Officer staff on implementation and refinement of NSF's public access policies and systems (e.g., NSF-PAR, see: http://par.nsf.gov ).  Provides oversight and direction to system developers at NSF and DOE in the collaborative development and maintenance of the subsystems comprising NSF-PAR.

Contributes to the NSF Knowledge Management activity (e.g., change management) and its work with internal, enterprise-wide policies.

Assists the Office of Legislative and Public Affairs (OLPA) in communicating NSF’s Public Access and Open Science goals to the range of research communities served by NSF. 

Provides strategic and technical advice to the PAOSWG and the Office of the Director on policy development and implementation regarding public access to the outcomes of federally funded research, and other related science policy issues as they arise.

Analyzes and integrates scientific input and policy guidance from OMB, OSTP, Congress, the National Academy of Sciences, professional societies, the National Science Board, NSF policy groups, the Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure, and other agencies and organizations into the Foundation’s plans for implementing public access and other science policy issues.

Advises OIA on advanced technology for knowledge management, including but not limited to taxonomy, ontology, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and semantic search.

Applies contemporary methods of organizing data, information, and knowledge to internal NSF information.

Provides leadership and support for the NSF Public Access Working Group. The NSF Public Access Working Group is charged with oversight of the implementation of the NSF Public Access Plan 2.0 (NSF 23-104, see: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2023/nsf23104/nsf23104.pdf ) and is comprised of senior leadership from across the Foundation. 

Serves on or leads NSF-wide groups addressing public access and other policy issues.  Serves on or leads teams of experts on interagency studies and, working with the Public Access working group and the Office of the Director, helps to coordinate NSF involvement in relevant interagency activities. 

Working with the Office of the Director and other NSF leadership, works to coordinate with the international science community on public access (and related policy issues as they arise) with the appropriate units within NSF, and to facilitate NSF interaction/participation in international science policy bodies.

Represents NSF as appropriate on internal committees, interagency committees, at meetings of other Federal agencies, professional organizations, and universities; participating, providing advice, and drafting recommendations and reports representing the outcome of such meetings.

Prepares background papers, presentations, and reports for use by senior NSF leadership in discussions with the National Science Board and for hearings and congressional testimony, as needed. Initiates, conducts, and manages studies and analyses to assess the scientific and technological contributions of public access to the achievement of national goals and objectives, as needed.

Serves as liaison with other Federal agencies, particularly in interagency programs involving public access policy development and implementation, and conducts other duties as assigned.

Appointment options

The position recruited under this announcement will be filled under the following appointment option(s):

Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) Assignment: Individuals eligible for an IPA assignment with a Federal agency include employees of State and local government agencies or institutions of higher education, Indian tribal governments, and other eligible organizations in instances where such assignments would be of mutual benefit to the organizations involved. Initial assignments under IPA provisions may be made for a period up to two years, with a possible extension for up to an additional two-year period. The individual remains an employee of the home institution and NSF provides the negotiated funding toward the assignee's salary and benefits. Initial IPA assignments are made for a one-year period and may be extended by mutual agreement. 

Eligibility information

It is NSF policy that NSF personnel employed at or IPAs detailed to NSF are not permitted to participate in foreign government talent recruitment programs.  Failure to comply with this NSF policy could result in disciplinary action up to and including removal from Federal Service or termination of an IPA assignment and referral to the Office of Inspector General. https://www.nsf.gov/careers/Definition-of-Foreign-Talent-HRM.pdf .

Applications will be accepted from U.S. Citizens. Recent changes in Federal Appropriations Law require Non-Citizens to meet certain eligibility criteria to be considered. Therefore, Non-Citizens must certify eligibility by signing and attaching this Citizenship Affidavit to their application. Non-Citizens who do not provide the affidavit at the time of application will not be considered eligible. Non-Citizens are not eligible for positions requiring a security clearance.

To ensure compliance with an applicable preliminary nationwide injunction, which may be supplemented, modified, or vacated, depending on the course of ongoing litigation, the Federal Government will take no action to implement or enforce the COVID-19 vaccination requirement pursuant to Executive Order 14043 on Requiring Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination for Federal Employees. Federal agencies may request information regarding the vaccination status of selected applicants for the purposes of implementing other workplace safety protocols, such as protocols related to masking, physical distancing, testing, travel, and quarantine.

Qualifications

Candidates must have a Ph.D. in an appropriate field plus after award of the Ph.D., six or more years of successful research, research administration, and/or managerial experience pertinent to the position; OR a Master's degree in an appropriate field plus after award of the degree, eight or more years of successful research, research administration, and/or managerial experience pertinent to the position.

Knowledge of current and historical developments in federal public access policies and mandates is highly desirable, as is familiarity with scientific communication practices and research data practices. Candidates must be able to communicate and interact with senior science, engineering and managerial personnel throughout the Foundation, with other agencies, and the general science and engineering community, and are expected to know and diplomatically express the views and goals of the NSF on Public Access topics in many situations both within and outside of the National Science Foundation. Candidates must also be skilled and experienced in operating both independently and interdependently with others. Outstanding oral and writing skills and the capability to deal with a wide variety of materials, frequently changing venues, and tight deadlines is imperative.

How to apply

To apply, email the following (i) a cover letter outlining qualifications and interest in the position, and (ii) an up-to-date curriculum vitae, to [email protected] .