Early Career

The 2016 NSF CAREER Program Informational Webinar was held Tuesday, March 15, 2016, at 3:00 PM EST.

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.

Hosted by CADRE, this webinar provided an informational overview of the program with perspectives from the NSF and PIs on active CAREER grants.

On October 13th, presenters talked about their effective mentoring experiences (giving both mentee and mentor perspectives). Research on early career STEM education researchers' mentoring needs and opportunities was also presented. The webinar culminated with implications for the development of mentoring plans.

CADRE Tips for Mentoring Early Career STEM Education Researchers and Developers provides guidelines that may help new mentors and mentees establish an effective and productive relationship.

This CADRE brief looks at the key elements and broader impacts of mentoring a postdoctoral/early career researcher.

Three example mentoring plans from DR K-12 projects plus a mentee's feedback and evaluation of one mentorship. These resources are also featured in the Spotlight on Mentoring.

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.

This sample postdoctoral mentoring plan was featured in CADRE’s Spotlight on Early Career in STEM Education R&D.

The future strength of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) K-12 education research and development efforts depends in part on the development of promising early career researchers and developers—including doctoral students, post-docs, and first time principal investigators (PIs)—who can grow into R&D leaders and form an impactful R&D workforce. This brief promotes deliberation on how to improve support and guidance for early career researchers and developers in the DR K-12 program, as well as in the broader field of STEM education R&D.

Planning to submit an NSF proposal this year? This toolkit is a compilation of helpful resources.