North Dakota EPSCoR awards of $650,000 new faculty start-up monies
The North Dakota Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (ND EPSCoR) has announced that six academic departments at UND will share in $650,000 designated for six new faculty start-up opportunities. These funds are made available to departments on a competitive basis and are designed to enhance the start-up packages offered to prospective research faculty during the hiring process.
Awards, which are of two years duration and begin September 1, 2011, were made to the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Department of Biology; Department of Chemical Engineering; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Department of Microbiology and Immunology; and the Department of Physics.
According to Dr. Mark R. Hoffmann, Assistant Vice President for Research and Economic Development at UND and Co-Project Director of the ND EPSCoR Steering Committee, “the new faculty start-up awards constitute one of the most important components of the multi-faceted EPSCoR program.” He went on to express appreciation to the National Science Foundation and the State of North Dakota for their support of research through this innovative program in which North Dakota’s public research universities, UND and NDSU, have been a partner since 1986. In announcing the awards, Hoffmann added, “The overall goal of ND EPSCoR is to increase the competitiveness of North Dakota for merit-based grants and contracts in support of science and technology research from federal funding agencies. New Faculty Start-up awards move UND in the proper direction towards meeting this objective.”
Funded through federal, state and private sector partnerships, ND EPSCoR manages a comprehensive research development plan that involves Infrastructure Improvement Programs, Science Outreach and Recruitment Programs, and Technology Transfer and Commercialization Programs.
ND EPSCoR’s federal research partners include the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Department of Defense (DOD).
