News & Updates
2020 EPSCoR/IDeA Annual Meeting
On February 24, 2020, members of the EPSCoR/IDeA community gathered in Washington, D.C., for the annual meeting of the EPSCoR/IDeA Coalition and the EPSCoR/IDeA Foundation. The EPSCoR/IDeA Coalition, created in 1988, is a not-for-profit 501(c)(4) organization that works to address the geographic imbalance of federal research awards and to increase congressional appropriations for the EPSCoR/IDeA programs. The EPSCoR/IDeA Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) non-lobbying organization, supports the goals of the Coalition, working with individual states and federal agencies that oversee EPSCoR/IDeA programs. The Foundation works to ensure accurate, coordinated communications efforts from the states about the effectiveness of the EPSCoR/IDeA programs. The annual meeting serves to launch Coalition and Foundation priorities and initiatives for the year.
Recent NSF Updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Please see below for recent updates from NSF regarding the Coronavirus (COVID-19).
UH Hilo receives $500K grant to research artificial intelligence interaction with humans
A computer scientist at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo is the recipient of a more than half-a million-dollar grant from the National Science Foundation aimed at developing new techniques in artificial intelligence (AI). Assistant Professor Travis Mandel, an AI expert, will use the prestigious $549,790 award to enhance research based on human-in-the-loop AI. The techniques are based on how AI and machine learning systems collaborate with humans to solve real-world problems too challenging for either to address alone.
Irvin Receives Inaugural W. Fred Taylor PhD Award for NIH IDeA Contributions
Charles Irvin, Ph.D., professor of medicine and associate dean for faculty affairs at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, has received the inaugural W. Fred Taylor PhD Award in recognition of his significant contributions to enhance the impact of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Program.
University of Vermont Leads NSF Funded Study on Extreme Weather Events
As the power of extreme weather events increase with climate change, a team of scientists warn that lakes around the world may dramatically change, threatening ecosystem health and water quality. And the international team reports that our limited understanding of how lakes—especially algae at the base of food webs—may respond to more-extreme storms represents a knowledge gap that increases the risk.
DEPSCoR DoD Day at the University of South Dakota
The University of South Dakota hosts DEPSCoR DoD Day, presented by the Department of Defense. Breakfast, lunch and refreshments will be provided. Though it is a free event, please register.
University of Nebraska Medical Center begins NIH clinical trial of remdesivir to treat COVID-19
A randomized, controlled clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the investigational antiviral remdesivir in hospitalized adults diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has begun at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in Omaha. The regulatory sponsor of the trial is the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. This is the first clinical trial in the United States to evaluate an experimental treatment for COVID-19, the respiratory disease first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.
EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Track 4: EPSCoR Research Fellows (RII Track-4) – NSF 20-543
Deadline: May 12, 2020; April 13, 2021; Second Tuesday in April, Annually Thereafter.
Montana State University Selected as 1 of 7 Winners for NSF’s First-Ever 2026 Idea Machine Prize
The NSF 2026 Idea Machine encouraged individuals from all walks of life, age 14 or older, to submit pressing “grand challenges” requiring fundamental research in science, engineering, or STEM education in order to inform NSF’s long-term planning. Approximately 800 entries were received from nearly every state in the U.S. and from established researchers, undergraduate and graduate students, teachers on behalf of their classes, and high school and middle school students. The submitted entries went through five selection stages, including a public comment phase. A blue-ribbon panel of 12 eminent, broad thinkers recommended seven ideas for the final prizes that were found to be exciting, ambitious, creative, and highly interdisciplinary.
DoD Will Present a “How to Engage: DoD Basic Research Enterprise” Meeting at LSU in February 2020
In 2017, Congress reauthorized and funded the Defense Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR) in order to enhance the capabilities of institutes of higher education in certain states and to increase their number of university researchers, increasing the probability of long-term growth in competitive federal funding.