After its first two offerings in 2006 and 2007, for which the most of the research experiences and the Grantees Conferences and Proceedings publication occurred in 2007 and 2008, respectively,and based on recommendations from participants and observers of those programs, IREE is evolving. The overarching goals of the IREE program remain unchanged: to support international travel by U.S. early-career researchers to enable them to gain international research experience and perspective, and to enable closer research interaction between U.S. institutions and their foreign counterparts. Two important features of IREE to be addressed for the current phase include: 1) the effectiveness of the experiences, and 2) the potential scalability of the program to impact larger numbers of researchers. The 2010 offering of the IREE program will serve as a pilot to inform future models relative to these two features. IREE 2010 pilot will also be focused on China research experiences, but with the goal of extending lessons learned to offerings in other regions of the globe.

Three models of orientation programs (cyber-based, US-based, and China-based) are designed make the IREE experience more valuable for U.S. researchers, as well as for their international research partners and institutions. Another goal of the 2010 IREE offering is to position the program to enable scale-up beyond what is practical using supplements to ongoing NSF research grants. We will experiment with placement of groups of researcher at single sites (similar to the international REU programs), as well as with allowing researchers and their faculty advisors to find placements themselves.