One of the goals of the IFN is to increase the number of nanoresearchers in the Institute from 40 to 55. To achieve this goal, the Task Force has actively searched for researchers that are not currently part of the IFN and that can contribute significantly to one of the IRGs. A second strategy, followed by the Task Force, is to identify newly recruited faculty that can be incorporated in one of the IRGs by providing them with startup funds. In the current year, the IFN identified three new faculty members that after evaluation by the Task Force were given startup funds to initiate their nanoresearch activity and thus become new IFN members. 

From the point of view of diversity, in the first two years of the IFN, four new females have been added to the IFN, and three are ethnically identified as Afro-Americans. Furthermore, six out of the ten are faculty at 4-year institutions, providing diversity by bringing more 4-year institution faculty into the IFN program. 

One of the central strategies of the IFN to develop newly recruited faculty is to induct them into the IFN research endeavor by providing a competitive startup fund proposal of no more than $200,000 for a two‑year period.  This year, the IFN has a total of seven active IFN recipients. All recipients wrote proposals to contribute to one of the scientific development of one of the IFN IRGs. Their progress report on scientific achievements is included in the corresponding Section II.B.1a under Research Accomplishments and Plans. A significant achievement of the Startup Funds Program for new faculty is the significant number of those startup funds recipients that have received NSF CAREER awards.  This year alone, two young faculty that are also startup funds recipients received CAREER awards: Dr. Ubaldo Córdova, a Chemical Engineer, and Dr. Ioannis Koutis, a Computer Scientist, received CAREER awards during the past year.