April 2018 External Evaluation of the Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems Initiative FINAL EVALUATION REPORT Prepared for The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Palo Alto, CA 94304 Prepared by RTI International 3040 E. Cornwallis Road Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 Contact: Jeffrey Alexander, Ph.D.
[email protected] +1 301.230.4656 RTI Project Number 0215963 _________________________________ RTI International is a registered trademark and a trade name of Research Triangle Institute. Acknowledgements The RTI team for this project would like to express its appreciation to the many individuals who contributed time and effort to enabling this research and supporting our analysis. In particular, we are grateful to the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for entrusting this evaluation to our group. The foundation’s Measurement, Evaluation, and Learning team, directed by Debra Joy Perez, provided excellent guidance for the project, and Julia Klebanov and Cissie Lam in particular facilitated our work and offered valuable feedback and direction. The foundation’s Science Program, led by Bob Kirshner, was extremely cooperative in the execution of this project, and the EPiQS initiative’s program staff (composed of program director Dusan Pejakovic, program officer Ernie Glover, and program associate Irina Kotikova) offered timely information, data, and commentary essential to the success of the project. Most significantly, we would like to acknowledge the more than 150 individuals who contributed their valuable time to take part in interviews, participate in discussion, and respond to the evaluation surveys involved in this project. These contributors included EPiQS grantees, university departmental and institutional representatives, postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, noted leaders in quantum materials research, leaders in physics funding and policy, and program managers in federal agencies.