National Science Foundation

Division of Engineering Education and Centers

Engineering Research Centers Program

Start-up Strategic Plan Guidelines

For

New Engineering Research Centers

Each new Engineering Research Center(ERC)is required by its cooperative agreement with NSF to submit anERC-wide strategic plan within 90 days of the award date of the ERC. The plan serves to refresh and expand the proposal update that was submitted during the competition. It also serves as an initial strategic implementation plan for the ERC. The Strategic Plan should integrate best practices across elements to create maximized value for the ERC.

Submission

The Center should submit an electronic copy by email to the managing NSF program officer.

The Strategic Plan submission should include:

Vision: Statement of the holistic vision for what the Center would like to accomplish, including goals for a transformative engineered system, the engineering workforce of the future, technology advancement and innovation, and a culture of inclusion, noting any refinements in the vision and the purpose of those refinements.

Foundations of the ERC: The Strategic Plan for the ERC is expected to integrate all 4 of the foundational components of the ERC, including specific strategies for achieving: (1) the research vision; (2) the engineering workforce development goals; (3) a vibrant innovation ecosystem; and (4) a culture of inclusion, and identify interdependencies among the four components of the strategic plan. The four components are expected to be integrated into a cohesive Strategic Plan that is supported by the organization and management structure of the ERC. The Strategic Plan must have the flexibility to evolve over time. An ERC needs to continually refine its vision to focus on core advances, prune less compelling ERC components, and refine as necessary the level of detail of its Strategic Plan over time.

The integrated strategic plan for the ERC should address the key elements of each component and their interactions, as well as within the context of the ERC as a whole:

  1. Research: An updated version of the ERC’s Three-Plane Strategic Chart (see Appendix I)with an updated summary of how the ERC plans to implement activities at each level, including the organization of the research program into thrusts and testbeds to overcome gaps and barriers, and a roadmap pointing to key milestones.
  1. Engineering Workforce Development: An updated summary of how the ERC plans to implement evidence-based, best practices that will result in a diverse, globally competitive, and team-oriented engineering workforce that has experience in research, industrial practice, technology advancement, entrepreneurship, and innovation; including enabling plans and approaches for achieving desired skill sets, undergraduate and graduate student experiences, outreach and curricular impact.
  1. Innovation Ecosystem:A chart placing the current members on the value chain for the targeted industry(ies) (see Appendix II);with an updated discussion of plans for developing and fostering industrial/practitioner memberships and involvement,filling gaps in the value chain, defining roles of the stakeholder community, supporting technology transfer and the development of an entrepreneurial culture.
  • Drafts of ERC Framework Documentation should also be included as appendices: final cross-partner agreement, intellectual property policy, and IAB membership agreement.
  1. Culture of Inclusion: An updated strategy for promoting a culture of inclusion where faculty, students, and staff from all backgrounds have the opportunity to contribute and succeed in research, education, innovation, and administration, including specific recruitment and retention plans, mentoring and training strategies, and other plans for achieving engagement of underrepresented groups at all levels, including leadership.

Logic Model and Evaluation Plan: ERCs will be expected to develop a logic model of the overall ERC that illustrates key components of the integrated strategic plan, including inputs, activities, expected outputs and outcomes, desired long-term impacts, and connections among logic model elements. NSF will provide training opportunities for ERC leadership teams to develop logic models within the 90-day start-up strategic planning period.Also, provide an updated evaluation plan that describes how the outputs, outcomes, and long-term impacts will be evaluated. The evaluation plan should include formative aspects that allow the center to make evidence-based decisions about changes in its activities and summative aspects to provide evidence of impact across all components of the center.

Infrastructure and Management: The Infrastructure of the ERC is expected to support the participating domestic university partners and affiliates and foreign collaborators through a strong leadership team, well-integrated and active advisory boards, well-coordinated management systems, resources, and institutional commitment to achieve the Center’s vision and goals for a transformative engineered system, the engineering workforce of the future, technology advancement and innovation, and a culture of inclusion.

  • An updated organization chart that demonstrates diverse representation (domestic women and domestic traditionally underrepresented groups) among the leadership of the ERC with an indication of the key positions that have yet to be filled and the probable timeframe in which they are expected to be filled.
  • If the ILO position is not filled, what is the timeline and plan for filling it? If the ILO position is filled, provide a summary of the key personnel responsible for developing the innovation ecosystem of the Center including their qualifications and roles in fulfilling the objectives of the plan.

Appendix I ERC Strategic Framework for Research

DOUBLE CLICK THE ABOVE EMBEDDED DOCUMENT TO OPEN THE THREE-PLANE STRATEGIC CHART TEMPLATE

Appendix II Sample Value Chain of Industry Members