The EDU Core Research (ECR) Principal Investigators (PI) Meeting, held May 28–30 in Arlington, VA, was the pinnacle of 2024 for the ECR Hub team! More than 400 attendees, including more than 30 officials from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), participated in the meeting, which the ECR Hub hosted. Attendees were able to choose from more than 35 sessions, including keynotes, panel discussions, workshops, lightning roundtables, and networking opportunities with program officers. 

Browse the meeting archive, including the program for the full list of plenary and breakout sessions. 

Highlights and Takeaways

• The event was a resounding success! Overall, 80% of survey respondents rated the meeting sessions above average or far above average compared to a typical conference session. Attendees appreciated the varied opportunities for building their professional networks, especially the prospective grantees and early-career scholars.
• Listening sessions helped shape the event. In planning the PI Meeting, we held a series of listening sessions with ECR PIs to learn what they wanted from the event. PIs expressed a strong desire for in-depth peer-to-peer discussion and engagement as well as informal opportunities for networking. 
• The lightning roundtable sessions were extremely popular. These sessions, which each focused on a different content track, used a two-part format. First, a small group of presenters each gave two-minute elevator speeches about their research projects. Next, the presenters led roundtable discussions about their projects. To support the discussions, presenters shared one-page infographics they had developed to present their in-progress or completed research in a simple and visually compelling way.
• Forty prospective grantees attended. We invited this group as part of the ECR Hub's mission to broaden participation in STEM education research. The group was thrilled to be included and to have the chance to expand their professional networks and learn from PIs and program officers. 

PI Meeting Quick Facts 

• 2 keynotes
• 7 workshops 
• 10 lightning roundtable sessions 
• 13 panels 
• $200M+ in NSF grant funds represented 
• 400+ attendees 
• 1,000 times someone said “It’s great to finally see you in person!” (ok, we may not have counted this)