NSF awards $38 Million to strengthen research infrastructure, build partnerships and improve STEM workforce development

The U.S. National Science Foundation has awarded researchers in Maine, Mississippi, New Mexico, Puerto Rico and Rhode Island roughly $38 million through the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), which promotes the development of research competitiveness among twenty-eight targeted states and territories, called jurisdictions. The awards, facilitated by the EPSCoR Collaborations for Optimizing Research Ecosystems Research Infrastructure Improvement Program (E-CORE RII) and the EPSCoR Research Incubators for STEM Excellence Research Infrastructure Improvement Program (E-RISE RII), aim to enhance research facilities, form new networks, support workforce development and accelerate economic growth in parts of the U.S. that have historically received lesser funding for scientific research.

"The NSF EPSCoR program is critical to ensure that we are creating opportunities and investing in innovation in every part of the United States" said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. "These new E-CORE and E-RISE awards will positively impact our Nation by advancing the breadth of STEM research, research infrastructure, and workforce development, while catalyzing opportunities for research and education in EPSCoR jurisdictions and beyond."

The E-RISE RII opportunity supports research teams and products in a scientific area linked to jurisdictional S&T plans. It seeks innovative proposals for sustainable networks to enhance STEM research capacity in a selected research area that has potential to for sustainable socio-economic impact within the jurisdiction. E-RISE RII projects aim to build research competitiveness, develop a skilled workforce, promote diversity and inclusion and integrate research efforts.

The E-CORE RII opportunity aids in building capacity in targeted research infrastructure cores within jurisdictions' research ecosystems. Capacity building may include developing, enhancing, and sustaining research administration, facilities, workforce development, partnerships, community engagement and economic development. The program supports EPSCoR-eligible jurisdiction's growth in research infrastructure cores.

E-RISE RII and E-CORE RII were established in response to the 2022 Study of the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, the Envisioning the Future of NSF EPSCoR report and the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. This round of awards will catalyze economic growth by propelling laboratory research to scalable commercial products and bring together expertise from multiple institutions to unravel complex scientific challenges. The awards will strengthen workforce development through educational initiatives that will help economically disadvantaged students and promote diversity, inclusion and accessibility by cultivating scientists and researchers from different backgrounds, with various experiences and points of view.

The awardees and a summary of each project are listed below: 

E-CORE RII: Research Infrastructure Optimization for New Mexico
Led by the University of New Mexico, this project aims to connect New Mexico's emerging research institutions (ERIs) with the broader state research ecosystem consisting of national laboratories, high-tech industries, and established research universities. By strengthening New Mexico's research infrastructure, the project will foster innovation which will lead to economic growth in critical sectors to create high value employment opportunities for graduates from ERIs. The project will also provide the state legislature with insights on economic and workforce trends to enable strategic investments in key areas and will foster a culture of inclusion and diversity, thereby broadening participation in the scientific enterprise across individuals, institutions, and sectors.

Collaborating Institutions (subawardees): Central New Mexico Community College, New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology, Navajo Technical University, New Mexico State University

E-CORE RII: Rhode Island Inclusive Network for Excellence in Science and Technology
The University of Rhode Island is leading this project to enable the state of Rhode Island and the Narragansett Indian tribe and its people to develop and maintain a sustainable broadly inclusive and competitive research ecosystem that supports use-inspired science and technology and workforce development. The project will sustainably develop capacity, programming, platforms, and partnerships that serve and benefit institutions of higher education across Rhode Island by institutionalizing research infrastructure support programs and implementing innovative programs that lead to increased collaborations across Rhode Island institutions. These platforms and systems will lead to an inclusive network for scientific opportunities with low barriers to entry, an increased number of students from minoritized and Tribal backgrounds that flourish in STEM, and the creation of new initiatives that align with the strategic diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and access plans of the collaborating institutions.

Collaborating Institutions (subawardees): Brown University, Rhode Island College, Rhode Island School of Design, Roger Williams University

E-CORE RII: Mississippi Research Alliance
The vision of this project, led by Mississippi State University, is to be a transformative force in the Mississippi research and innovation ecosystem. The project will forge strategic partnerships that harness and enhance existing human and physical assets and coordinate new investments to position Mississippi as a National Front runner in science and technology. The project will strengthen strategic governance, improve sustainable access to instrumentation, and foster cross institutional collaborations, thereby boosting cutting edge research carried out by interdisciplinary teams and resulting in exponential gains to Mississippi's knowledge-based economy. The project's integrated approach will create a research and development ecosystem that builds strategic alliances among research and emerging research institutions, state agencies, and public and private organizations, to positively impact education, workforce development, and the broader societal understanding of scientific endeavors.

Collaborating Institutions (subawardees): University Southern Mississippi, University of Mississippi, Mississippi Vally State University

E-RISE RII: Maine Algal Research Infrastructure and Accelerator
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences leads this project to build the Maine Algal Research Infrastructure and Accelerator to serve as a nucleus for algae-based innovation in Maine and catalyze economic grown and workforce development. The project aims to build a state-of-the-art research infrastructure that will streamline the exploration of algae's commercial potential from individual cell level analysis to product optimization and eventual scaling. The research will lead to discovery of novel approaches to harness algae as efficient biofactories for synthesizing new high-value products relevant to the Maine Innovation Economy Action Plan, while the project will align strategic collaborations, including with local farmers and algal companies, to create an accelerated network uniquely seeded to enhance the agricultural, aquaculture, and pharmaceutical potential of algae in Maine.

Collaborating Institutions (subawardees): Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, University of New England, Colby College, Maine Center for Entrepreneurs, Gulf of Maine Ventures

E-RISE RII: Cracking the developmental blueprint of life: Omics, computational science, and artificial intelligence
In an effort to position Puerto Rico as a thriving hub for innovation and economic growth in life sciences and biotech/molecular sectors, this project, led by the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras, brings together faculty from 7 institutions to unravel the complexities of developmental biology by examining the evolutionary and developmental framework of butterfly divergence. This project delves into the fundamental science of evolution and adaptation, seeking to decipher the molecular intricacies that govern cellular processes and organismal development. The novelty of the project lies in the single-cell-genomic resolution around which all other molecular information will be integrated using cutting-edge computational and AI approaches. The project includes workforce development initiatives that integrate STEM education and interventions to cultivate skills for both academic and non-academic careers, in part by generating important resources for the broader scientific community and through outreach activities tailored to K-12 teachers and students.

Collaborating Institutions (subawardees): Centro Comprensivo de Cancer de la Universidad de Puerto Rico