Alabama EPSCoR Awarded $9 Million from National Science Foundation

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research was recently awarded a grant of $9 million from the National Science Foundation, to be distributed over a three-year period.

The higher education institutions included in this Research Infrastructure Improvement Program funding are: The University of Alabama, Auburn University, Tuskegee University, the University of South Alabama, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Alabama A&M University and Shelton State Community College.

Also included are education efforts at K-12 institutions, including the Alabama School of Math and Science in Mobile and the Tuscaloosa County Schools. The project also includes 13 industrial partners from Alabama and several other states, and additional partnerships with NASA and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The principal investigators of the grant met recently on the UA campus to discuss organizational details and goals for new “centers of excellence” to be funded by the grant.

“The main goal of the meeting was to develop strategic and management planning efforts of the new grant projects that will further increase research competitiveness in the state,” said Dr. Robert Griffin, Alabama EPSCoR director and associate dean for research in the UA College of Engineering. He added that plans were made to meet with the remaining grant and program participants from around the state and national experts to aid in these upcoming strategic planning efforts.

The grant will bring $9 million in NSF funds along with $5.9 million in non-federal matching funds to the state’s institutions for the establishment of three proposed “centers of excellence,” according to Griffin. These multi-campus centers will stimulate collective clusters of research, and extend the scope of that research, both nationally and internationally.

Research at the centers will focus on health care, technology and economic development, and they will be linked by an interconnective high-speed networking infrastructure, said Griffin.

One of these centers will be the Alabama Structural Biology Consortium, which will address health-care research issues through collaborative use of instrumentation and specialized expertise while fostering partnerships with biotech industries. This center will include researchers from UAH, USA and UAB.

Another center will be called Integrated Micro- Electromechanical Systems, a new facility that will expand upon existing technology in the sate by improving and building on micromachining and nano/microfabrication capabilities for fiber- optics and chip production. Included in these studies will be researchers from UA, UAH, Auburn and Tuskegee.

A Large-Scale Electromechanical Systems center is planned to expand existing capabilities for economic development in medium- and large-scale mechanical systems used by industry while increasing the number of researchers and training practitioner/technicians. These projects will include Shelton State Community College, one university from another EPSCoR state, a K-12 institution, 11 industrial partners and two federal labs/agencies.

The final goal of the $9 million grant is for EPSCoR to connect the proposed Centers of Excellence and others involved in the program for joint research by expanding the Internet2 initiative, thereby eliminating geographical barriers and improving communication.

Alabama EPSCoR is a consortium of academic, government and industrial organizations created in 1985 to support projects and establish an infrastructure within the state of Alabama capable of developing and sustaining high-quality science and engineering research and education that can in turn contribute to statewide national competitiveness.

Past Alabama EPSCoR research projects have included: new materials and biomedical devices such as coatings for orthopedic and dental devices; spinal fixation devices for patients with spine deformities; next generation detection systems for pathogens and toxins; improved solid waste utilization technologies; new materials for higher density computer storage devices (disks and tapes); and interdisciplinary research efforts at the Talladega Wetland Ecosystem to fund faculty in departments of biological sciences.