NSF Director Dr. Panchanathan references EPSCoR in “The Hill” OpEd

Director talks about NSF contributions to science

National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan recently wrote an OpEd that appeared in the April 1, 2021 issue of The Hill, a news media outlet based in Washington, DC. In the article entitled “We need to strengthen and accelerate US science and technology progress,” Panchanathan recounted many of the advances and innovations as a result of NSF funding over the past 70 years. Of the NSF EPSCoR Program, he wrote:

How do we scale the impacts of examples like these? We bring more people into the fold, from diverse backgrounds. And we break down barriers between academic researchers, industry, nonprofits, and state and local communities. NSF has experience in this area through the relationships we have built with Historically Black Colleges and Universities and efforts like the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, also known as EPSCoR, which increases research capabilities and capacity in targeted jurisdictions. We see the results in places like Alaska, where NSF has invested $20 million to support a research collaboration to produce improved models of how wildfires spread — a critical local issue as climate change shrinks glaciers and creates new risks for forests.

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