Conference: 2025 NPA IMPACT Fellowship Program Summit

This project aims to support a summit of the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) IMPACT Fellowship Program, an event of critical importance as postdoctoral fellows from underrepresented communities selected for the program learn and network with one another

and others to benefit themselves and society as a whole. This proposed summit aims to be the essential culmination of the fourth class of IMPACT Fellows, enabling strategically planned activities that promote and extend the duration of the learning objectives of the fellowship. The six current IMPACT Fellows will meet in person for the first time and engage in didactic and interactive skills learning, peer engagement, and mentor connectivity in order to strengthen their personal and professional chances of success in STEM and STEM-adjacent fields.

This work, in turn, benefits society broadly by helping create a successful, increasingly connected, and empowered class of IMPACT Fellows from disadvantaged backgrounds, scholars who have been selected for their Fellowship in part due to clearly demonstrated need for tools for professional growth. As a pinnacle of the 16-month IMPACT Fellowship, the Summit, connected to the NPA Annual Conference, the largest gathering of postdoctoral researchers in the U.S., aims to significantly increase the chances of these members of underrepresented communities achieving faculty positions and thereby diversifying academia.

This event provides a select cohort of exceptional postdoctoral fellows from underrepresented backgrounds with additional tools as they continue their journeys to the professoriate. The project supports an invitation-only session set as a preconference to the NPA Annual Conference and will be attended by NPA IMPACT Fellows (6); IMPACT Fellow Mentors (6); NPA IMPACT Task Force Members (6); IMPACT Fellow Alums (2); and Invited Speakers (2).

This proposal will financially support members of underrepresented communities to be able to attend the summit and the NPA conference. The IMPACT Program curriculum emphasizes relational learning and self-efficacy, is designed nimbly to maximize Fellows’ sense of belonging and connection to a broader community and provide education and career pathways to postdoctoral scholars to help broaden participation in STEM and related research.

The summit aims to achieve its goals using a four-component method: 1) peer discussion and learning; 2) speaker-led interactive workshops; 3) program evaluation and feedback; and 4) networking opportunities. The scope of the project helps 1) inform the curriculum of the next class of IMPACT Fellows for 2025-26, 2) ensure the longevity of IMPACT Fellowship learnings of current Fellows in their STEM careers, and 3) inform, through creation and dissemination of a paper summarizing session results, the content of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) postdoctoral programs in STEM offered by the NPA’s research institution members and partners.

This project also aims to support the work of IMPACT Fellows as they develop Individual IMPACT Projects (IIPs) to empower their home (institution/minority cohort) communities, sharing lessons learned as researchers from underrepresented backgrounds. The summit methodology includes individual and group feedback on cross-disciplinary presentations of these projects for the benefit of all participants.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.