NSF Inspector General Reviews EPSCoR

With an overall positive review, the Office of the Inspector General within the National Science Foundation (NSF) has made several recommendations for improving the performance of NSF's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). EPSCoR plays an important and strategic role in many states’ efforts to build a stronger research enterprise and tech-based economy. In FY 2000, the NSF EPSCoR program distributed $51.7 million to 19 states and Puerto Rico. The FY 2001 budget is $74.8 million.



Created in 1978, the NSF EPSCoR program has served as a model for other agencies’ efforts to increase the research culture of states that have historically received a small share of federal research dollars.



In addition to the EPSCoR program administration, the Inspector General’s office reviewed the EPSCoR programs in Maine and Mississippi. The two states were selected for attention because “they had undergone significant recent changes that were of particular interest to NSF program managers and because the states were substantially different in their demographics and research infrastructures.” General analysis of the other EPSCoR states is included throughout the report as well.



Seven recommendations are made to strengthen the NSF EPSCoR program and the individual state programs reviewed. Recommendations for the NSF program office include:

• developing an administrative mechanism to ensure that EPSCoR co-funding dollars are targeted at more specific research areas of focused impact (similar to the infrastructure awards) and do not support, either directly or indirectly, researchers who move to non-EPSCoR states after receipt of EPSCoR funding.
• deciding whether to adopt general criteria to determine EPSCoR eligibility, rather than merely publishing a list of eligible states (echoing a request made by at least one state participant).

With the goal of building broader, sustainable partnerships for research-based economic development, the Inspector General’s office also encouraged states to “cultivate knowledgeable persons from outside higher education to play more prominent roles in EPSCoR.”



The full report can be found at http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?oig012002