News & Updates

Dr. Sandra Richardson has been appointed Section Head for the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) section within the Office of Integrative Activities (OIA), effective February 13. Richardson comes to the OIA from the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR), where she currently serves as the Acting Deputy Division Director in DUE and is the former Program Lead for the NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program. In 2020, Richardson also served as Acting Director of the Science & Engineering Indicators Program in the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. Richardson has held several other leadership positions during her time at NSF, including serving as Executive Secretary for the EHR Advisory Committee’s Subcommittee on Broadening Participation, a member of the Federal Coordination in STEM Education Interagency Working Group on Strategic Partnerships, and a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute.

The University of South Carolina welcomes President-elect Michael Amiridis, who will serve as the 30th president of UofSC starting this summer.

NM EPSCoR has announced the appoint-ment of Ganesh Balakrishnan as new Director, effective March 1. Ganesh Balakrishnan succeeds Dr. Bill Michener, who will retire this year.

Ganesh "Gunny" Balakrishnan brings over ten years of experience to NM EPSCoR, serving as PI on fifteen large grants in addition to numerous Co-PI appointments. He will continue to teach in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UNM and will be actively involved in research at the Center for High Technology Materials, working on semiconductor materials and devices. Prior to the EPSCoR directorship, he was the Program Chair for the Optical Science and Engineering Program and the Associate Department Chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.

Join ND NSF EPSCoR in welcoming their State Office’s new Business Manager, Eric Exner. Exner comes to the ND EPSCoR State Office from the North Dakota University System where he was a Business Analyst within Core Technology Services. Exner’s responsibilities include the oversight of all financial transactions related to ND EPSCoR and the ND EPSCoR State Office at all participating campuses. Exner officially began his position on Jan 20.

NIH is awarding $170 million over five years, pending the availability of funds, to clinics and centers across the country for a new study that will develop algorithms to predict individual responses to food and dietary routines. The Nutrition for Precision Health powered by the All of Us Research Program (NPH) will recruit a diverse pool of 10,000 participants who are part of the NIH’s All of Us Research Program to inform more personalized nutrition recommendations.

Through this Prize, DOE aims to fund community-centric individuals, teams, or organizations for ongoing and/or proposed activities related to climate and clean energy that support, build trust, and strengthen relationships and partnerships with disadvantaged communities. Up to 10 organizations will share a total prize pool of up to $2.5M. Apply by Feb 25, 5 pm ET.

The DOE has issued an FOA for up to $100 million to support the deployment of novel technologies that can significantly change how communities, industries and businesses reduce emissions, promote energy efficiency, and drive grid modernization. The funding program, administered by DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), supports President Biden’s Building a Better America agenda by lowering emissions, generating good-paying jobs and securing US leadership on clean energy technologies.

The DOE announced a plan to provide up to $110 million for basic research and technology development to design and engineer plants and microbes for the production of advanced biofuels, bioproducts, and biomaterials. The research will elucidate fundamental biological processes to enable genome-scale redesign and editing to develop more productive and resilient crops and novel microbial strains that can efficiently produce valuable chemicals and materials that will advance a sustainable and secure bioeconomy.

The DOE has announced a funding opportunity for up to $24 million for new grants under the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DOE EPSCoR). The grants, to be awarded competitively on the basis of peer review, are aimed to help institutions in EPSCoR-eligible states to conduct research while building capabilities to enable these regions to compete more successfully for other federal R&D funding awards.

On behalf of the EPSCoR/IDeA Foundation, I’d like to thank you for your support this year. In 2021, we saw a return to somewhat “normal” with many meetings going back to an in-person format. We also added new resources including Cyndy Buckhaults as our communications consultant to revamp our website, start our newsletter and update our social media, and Stephanie Cooke to provide administrative support.