The purpose of the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award is to create a teacher-scholar — a faculty member who, throughout his / her career, will use research to attract and motivate undergraduate students to learn better. Applicants must be academically independent. In other words, this is not NSF’s version of the mentored career-development awards that are offered by other agencies.
Acquisition of a prestigious CAREER Award is a particularly distinguishing step in the developing career of an assistant professor, which is why so many apply for it – mostly without success. Failure is usually attributable to not understanding what NSF is trying to create with this Award and, therefore, not appreciating how the application must be written. This seminar teaches attendees how to meet the purpose of the program with their proposals while, at the same time, it makes them aware of the missteps that cause so many CAREER applications to fail. Both Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts aspects of the CAREER program are considered.
All participants receive an extensive handout, as well as a copy of the NSF version of The Grant Application Writer’s Workbook. Any opinions or recommendations expressed in either the seminar or the Workbook are those of GWSW and not those of the National Science Foundation.