Administration Requests Less for Most EPSCoR Programs

With the release of the President's FY 2003 budget request, five of seven federal programs designed to help state universities in 21 states were slated for cuts or total elimination. Collectively known as the EPSCoR programs, short for Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, the emphasis began in 1979, with an innovative National Science Foundation (NSF) program intended to improve the research competitiveness of those states that have received lesser amounts of federal R&D funding. 



Designed around the premise that aiding researchers and institutions in securing federal R&D funding will develop a state's research infrastructure and advance economic growth locally and nationally, EPSCoR investments have become an integral element of many states' strategies to develop tech-based economies. 



NSF's EPSCoR is active in 21 states — Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico 



Since 1979, EPSCoR and EPSCoR-like programs have been created in the Department of Agriculture (Ag), Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH EPSCoR equivalent is known as the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program 



In the President's request the EPSCoR programs collectively would experience a cut of nearly $6 million among the seven federal agencies. When examined individually, the nature of more drastic cuts and eliminations is revealed: 

• Department of Agriculture - no request for FY 2003, $12 million was available in FY 2002 (an allotment of 10 percent of the National Research Initiative grants, which totaled $120 million) 
• Department of Defense - $9.8 million requested for FY 2003, $15.9 million appropriated in FY 2002 
• Department of Energy - $7.685 million requested for FY 2003, $7.679 million appropriated in FY 2002 
• Environmental Protection Agency - no request for FY 2003, $2.5 million appropriated in FY 2002 
• NASA - $4.6 million requested for FY 2003, $10 million appropriated in FY 2002 
• National Institutes of Health IDeA - $185 million requested for FY 2003, $160 million appropriated in FY 2002  
• National Science Foundation - $75 million requested for FY 2003 (with $148 million in co-funding), $80 million (with $143 million in co-funding) appropriated in FY 2002 

At NSF, EPSCoR is used to boost R&D competitiveness through the investment of fiscal and human resources by both NSF and participating states and other initiatives, including Research Infrastructure Improvement Grants, or 36-month grants of up to $9 million to support infrastructure improvements in select science and technology (S&T) areas.