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Evaluation and Assessment Capability (OIA/EAC)

Supporting NSF mission excellence through the generation of evidence for decision making
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Evaluation and Assessment Capability (OIA/EAC)

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Evaluation and Assessment Capability

Evaluation and Assessment Capability (EAC) supports NSF decision makers by studying programs and activities and their impact on the people who participate in and benefit from NSF investments. EAC also provides centralized resources and guidance for data collection, analysis, evaluation design, surveys, and enterprise analytics. EAC engages stakeholders in identifying learning priorities which drive a broad portfolio of projects that use qualitative and quantitative methods, from simple descriptive analysis to advances in modeling, network analysis, and machine learning.

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Featured Evaluations and Studies

Evaluation of NSF Grants to Broaden Participation in STEM: American Innovation and Competitiveness Act Section 305

May 2024

Multicolored lights on front panel of gordon supercomputer
Under Section 305 of the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act (AICA), Public Law 114–329, NSF is required to report on NSF activities designed to broaden participation of underrepresented populations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Between fiscal years 2017 and 2022, NSF awarded over 3,200 grants through NSF programs focused on broadening participation in STEM. This report describes the geographic distribution of grants awarded under AICA, discusses the characteristics of lead principal investigators and institutions receiving awards, and reviews program-level evaluations.  Full Report (PDF, 1.93 MB)

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Generating evidence for decision making with the U.S. National Science Foundation Education and Training Application (ETAP) 

April 2024

Woman wearing virtual reality glasses.
Credit: John T. Consoli/University of Maryland
This report presents the findings of two piloted approaches to track NSF program participants’ outcomes using data from the NSF ETAP. The two approaches tested were: (1) matching ETAP data for former participants with extant data from the National Student Clearinghouse (for educational outcomes), and (2) using contact information from ETAP to field a survey to former participants (for educational and employment outcomes).  Full Report (PDF, 3.82 MB)

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A Review of Funder Instructions and Grant Reviewer Practices for Assessing the Intellectual Merit and Other Impacts of Research

February 2024

Archeologists sorting clay artifacts
This report reviews the existing literature on how reviewers at institutions outside of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) assess nonmedical basic and use-inspired research and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. It provides evidence about the criteria used to assess grants and factors having important, unimportant, or unstudied impacts on the evaluation of the intellectual merit and broader impacts of grant proposals. Full Report (PDF, 1.41 MB)

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Long-term Educational Outcomes of NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site participants (2013 and 2014 Cohorts)

October 2023

This fact sheet summarizes postsecondary enrollment and graduation outcomes of 5,088 REU students who participated in an REU Site in either 2013 or 2014 and were matched to National Student Clearinghouse data 7-8 years after program participation. Fact Sheet (PDF, 1.12 MB)

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2021 Merit Review Survey Report

October 2023 

Physics

This report describes survey findings on PI's and Reviewers' satisfaction with the NSF merit review process, including their perceptions of quality, fairness, and burden; drawing information from over 17,000 individuals who shared their experiences submitting or reviewing proposals during Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 and 2020. Full Report (PDF, 4.33 MB)

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