Success Stories

Ever since he was a young boy, watching the televised lunar landings from his hometown of Cañuelas, Argentina, Pablo de León knew he wanted to contribute to human space exploration. Now, as chair of the Department of Space Studies at the University of North Dakota (UND), he’s doing just that, designing and developing 3D-printed spacesuit models that may support future exploration of Mars. The research is made possible through EPSCoR, a part of NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement and based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

De León moved to the United States more than 30 years ago to fulfill his dream of contributing to human spaceflight and, for the past 17 years, he has been a professor at UND, conducting critical research in the area of planetary spacesuits. Most recently, he received a $750,000 grant – spread across three years – from NASA’s EPSCoR to develop a 3D-printed spacesuit model and identify key technologies that may reduce the logistical supply chain needed from Earth when astronauts begin venturing to the Moon and Mars.

“To me, as a researcher, EPSCoR has been incredibly useful because we’re able to open new lines of research because we otherwise wouldn’t have funding to start development,” de León said. “There are new things that can potentially be game changers for the future of human spaceflight and, really, the only way for us external researchers to be able to do this research is through the NASA EPSCoR program.”

Researchers at The University of New Mexico are leading a $15M, five-year project funded by NSF EPSCoR that will engage communities in the American Intermountain West to collaboratively address the impacts of climate change, including drought, wildfires and community well-being. The project is being led by Mark Stone, professor in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at UNM.

The Transformation Network is a multi-disciplinary research effort based at UNM that represents diverse communities, sectors, disciplines and backgrounds that is aimed at improving regional sustainability.

The Network is composed of UNM and seven other universities: Colorado State University, the University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University, Washington State University, Utah State University, New Mexico Tech and New Mexico State University. The Network has also partnered with over 50 organizations across the American Intermountain West to elevate the Network’s capacity.

Most people are unlikely to associate seaweed with dairy production. But University of New Hampshire scientists will be working to change that, sharing two USDA NIFA grants totaling nearly $13M to investigate supplementation of dairy cow diets with seaweed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve milk quality and animal health.

Dairy farmers continue facing finance uncertainties and are increasingly looked to for helping contribute toward the goal of agricultural production being a mitigator of climate change. The agricultural industry is responsible for 10 percent of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EPA. Livestock, especially ruminants such as cattle, represent more than a quarter of the emissions of methane, which is produced as part of the normal digestive processes. Scientific innovation in feed management could help reduce these environmental effects in a cost-effective manner.

A four-year $6M USDA NIFA Specialty Crop Research Initiative grant has been issued to support research into addressing the coffee leaf rust (CLR) disease that is threatening coffee farmers in Hawaii and Puerto Rico. This grant will support a consortium led by the Synergistic Hawaii Agriculture Council.The impact of this research, however, is expected to extend beyond US farmers to help the global coffee community combat CLR.

The NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has awarded $1.75M to the University of South Carolina Big Data Health Science Center to train junior faculty to conduct infectious disease research using vast amounts of data. Through the Big Data Health Science Fellow program, the Center will provide training, mentorship and 25% salary support to five, one-year cohorts of early-career researchers from across the university.

“The Big Data Health Science Center’s R25 training grant is in accordance with the University of South Carolina’s ongoing transformative focus to have a meaningful and long-lasting impact on our state and our nation,” says Stephen Cutler, UofSC’s Interim Executive Vice President and Provost. “The diverse faculty of this program represent five UofSC schools and colleges who are engaged in cutting-edge data-driven healthcare research and discovery to improve population health.”

With support from a new NIH $1.4M Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics for Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) initiative grant, Brown University researchers and local community organizations are working to address barriers to COVID-19 testing and vaccination among the Latinx population as well as high-risk children in Rhode Island. Underserved communities, including Hispanic and Latinx populations, tend to have lower rates of vaccinations even in a state like Rhode Island, which has higher-than-average vaccination rates.

The project is designed to address disparities in access to health care in the U.S. brought to the forefront by the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers noted. Underserved communities, including Hispanic and Latinx populations, tend to have lower rates of vaccinations even in a state like Rhode Island, which has higher-than-average vaccination rates.

Oklahoma EPSCoR has named Dr. Raman P. Singh as director of the program beginning Oct 1, 2021. Singh replaces Dr. Jerry Malayer, who had served as director since 2010. Malayer recently retired.

Singh serves as the associate dean for engineering at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa and as a faculty member in the School of Materials Science and Engineering and the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology at OSU. He also serves as the director of the Helmerich Advanced Technology Research Center on the OSU-Tulsa campus and is appointed as the Helmerich Family Endowed Chair Professor of Engineering.

Thanks to a new $1.125M NASA EPSCoR grant, researchers from University of Nebraska-Omaha will soon aid in the development and testing of antimicrobial and recyclable materials for in-space manufacturing.

Through this grant funding, two new antimicrobial materials will be developed by Copper3D, then manufactured and tested for safety on Earth in a replica of the International Space Station's (ISS) Additive Manufacturing Facility. Once the safety of the material has been validated, the team will prepare the launch, operation, and return-to-Earth activities.

LBRIN (Louisiana INBRE) funded researcher, Dr. Jayalakshmi Sridhar from Xavier University, received a $348,650 grant from the NIH for her project entitled, “Development of Therapeutics Targeting Tauopathy for Alzheimer's Disease.”

The University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER) received $1.3M from the DOE’s National Energy Technology Lab to develop technology that will capture carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere. This direct air capture project will leverage technology and innovation previously developed at UK by CAER’s Power Generation Research Group. CAER will be developing an intensified, cost-effective and scalable process using aqueous potassium hydroxide as capture solvent for direct air capture.