Broadening Participation Through Cross-Center and Cross-Sector Partnership

The U.S. National Science Foundation Center for Molecularly Optimized Networks (NSF MONET) has built its broadening participation strategy on a simple premise: the reach of a single center multiplies when it works in partnership.

NSF MONET has extended its programming beyond its own institutions to other U.S. National Science Foundation Centers for Chemical Innovation (NSF CCIs), Historically Black Colleges and Universities, professional societies, and national education networks, producing documented engagement at every level of the STEM pathway.

At the SACNAS National Diversity in STEM (NDiSTEM) Conference, NSF MONET participated in collaborative recruitment among NSF CCIs. In 2024, Directors of Broader Impacts from NSF MONET, the Center for Synthetic Organic Electrochemistry, and the Center for the Mechanical Control of Chemistry shared a single exhibit-hall presence in Phoenix, Arizona. The model was repeated in Columbus, Ohio in 2025, where a joint NSF CCI booth again showcased graduate research and training opportunities to conference attendees.

That same conference hosted the NSF MONET-led symposium “Transforming STEM Through Broader Impacts: Strategies for Cultural Relevance,” which convened more than 75 students, postdoctoral scholars, and STEM professionals from the University of Guam, The College of New Jersey, the University of Nevada–Las Vegas, and two NSF CCIs. The session was well received and was adapted into an episode of the Science with Impact podcast, extending its reach well beyond the conference hall.

NSF MONET frameworks are now being requested by peer centers. In October 2025, the NSF MONET Director of Broader Impacts delivered a 90-minute workshop on the Special Professional Development Experience (SPDE) framework to 26 Education Directors representing all 20 NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers, direct progress toward the Center’s stretch goal of having its frameworks adopted or adapted by at least ten external institutions, centers, or organizations by 2030. In July 2026, the Center delivered a virtual research-pitch workshop for trainees at a partner NSF CCI, and in August 2026 it co-hosted the NSF CCI Collaborative Coffee Hour at the ACS Fall National Meeting in Chicago alongside the Center for Synthetic Organic Electrochemistry and the Center for Computer-Assisted Synthesis.

Institutional partnerships anchor this work. NSF MONET Senior Investigator Dr. Juana Mendenhall chaired the SERMACS symposium on effective and innovative partnerships at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and presented in an HBCU Engage session on advancing transformative bidirectional partnerships in chemistry and nanoscience.

The Center also supports the Polymer Women Empowerment & Research (PoWER) initiative, which engaged more than 100 participants at Northwestern University in 2024 under the leadership of NSF MONET Senior Investigators Julia Kalow and Monica Olvera de la Cruz.

Complementary talks, including a featured presentation at the ACS Women in the Chemical Enterprise networking breakfast at ACS Spring 2025 and the “Beyond the Beaker” symposium for approximately 100 undergraduates in February 2026, connect early-career scientists to concrete professional pathways.

Together, these activities demonstrate a replicable, partnership-driven model: NSF MONET does not simply run programs, it builds infrastructure that other centers and institutions adopt.