RI Schools Receive $20 Million Marine Life Science Research Grant

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Tuesday, September 07, 2010

GoLocalProv Lifestyle Team

The National Science Foundation has awarded the University of Rhode Island a $20 million grant designed to stimulate research in marine life science at nine of the state’s institutions of higher education. The funding builds on previous NSF support and is intended to strengthen the state’s research competitiveness and productivity, fund outreach and workforce development initiatives, and increase career pathways in science, technology, engineering and math.

URI is the project lead on the new grant and works in collaboration with a statewide network made up of Brown University and new partner Rhode Island School of Design (through its “Making Science Visible” initiative), co-PI’s on the grant; Bryant University, the Community College of Rhode Island, Providence College, Rhode Island College, Roger Williams University and Salve Regina University.

Where the Funding Lands

The EPSCoR funding will provide for new laboratory equipment at the Center for Marine Life Science (at the URI Narragansett Bay Campus), the Genome Sequencing Center (at the URI Kingston Campus), and the Proteomics Center (at Brown University). The funding will also support 37 graduate and 165 undergraduate students.

The Rhode Island EPSCoR Academy, which was established through the 2006 grant, will be able to enhance its enrichment, tutoring and professional development programs for middle and high school students and teachers. It will also provide 11 two-year graduate research fellowships, and 25 entrepreneurial fellowships. The Academy, which includes all nine institutions and the Slater Technology Fund, supports graduate fellowships at URI, Brown and Rhode Island College, and creates networking opportunities for faculty and students to enhance collaboration. EPSCoR is a program designed to assist those states that have historically received less than 0.75 percent of NSF research funding annually.