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: