Regional Meetings Planned for Input on EPSCoT

Three regional meetings are being scheduled to receive input on the design of the proposed Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Technology (EPSCoT) program. The program is intended to "foster the development of indigenous technology assets in states that traditionally have been under represented in the distribution of federal R&D expenditures."

The Department of Commerce's Technology Administration describes EPSCoT as the technology counterpart to the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). It is being designed to bridge the gap between university research and the local economy and develop economic development tools to foster regional technology-based economic growth. It would be a competitive, cost-shared grant program.

Commerce proposes that the following states would be eligible to participate in EPSCoT: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming, as well as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

The regional meetings are to determine what activities are currently being conducted in the states to foster technology-based economic growth and how EPSCoT should be structured. One meeting has been scheduled for June 16 in Billings. Meetings in West Virginia and New Orleans, LA will be scheduled shortly and reported in the Digest's Calendar of Events, available at http://www.ssti.org/calendar.htm

For more information on the meetings and the EPSCoT program, contact Marc Cummings at the Department of Commerce's Technology Administration at 202/482-8323.