The National Association of IDeA Principal Investigators (NAIPI) is the collective voice of all of us in the IDeA community.

NAIPI aims to protect and promote the IDeA programs.  It fosters interactions, promotes resource sharing, enhances the national visibility of the INBREs, COBREs, and CTRs, develops consensus on priorities, identifies and disseminates best practices, identifies opportunities and develops strategies. “In alignment with our mission, NAIPI supports several initiatives such as PEARL (Program Evaluation and Administration of Research Leaders) and COPA (COBRE Program Administrators) to further enhance collaboration, knowledge sharing, and best practices across the IDeA community.”

PEARL (Program Evaluation and Administration of Research Leaders)

Initiated in 2014 as a small group of Western-region internal evaluators of INBRE programs, this national network is growing in both participation and scope. The principal mission of the PEARL organization is to enable our IDeA programs to access the collective knowledge and experience of the group and offer the benefit of alternative perspectives in helping accomplish our respective programmatic aims. PEARL has become a touchstone for sharing ideas that enable better practice in evaluation and program implementation and for discussing the challenges in documenting the relationship between program activities and outcomes. Additionally, by working together, we endeavor to address the redundancy that arises from each of our programs working in isolation to develop effective practices. We have participants from 20 of the national INBREs and additional participants from COBREs in many IDeA states. To learn more about the group, email jcbenson@alaska.edu

COBRE Program Administrators (COPA)

COPA is comprised of COBRE program admins that meet via zoom every month. Our members share experiences, challenges, and best practices across different COBRE programs. We maintain a website accessible to members, allowing our group to share documents and resources that may be sensitive in nature but valuable to the COPA community.  To join the COPA group, please email us.