Alaska EPSCoR is a statewide University of Alaska program that was first established in 2001 with a $9 million NSF grant and a $4.5 million state match. The University of Alaska has pledged to contribute $3 million to the third phase of the program, which encompasses UA campuses across the state. Since its inception, Alaska EPSCoR has funded dozens of new researchers and more than 100 graduate student fellowships, and has facilitated numerous undergraduate research opportunities and public education and outreach projects.
Jones said EPSCoR and other federal capacity-building programs have played a significant role in the growth of UAFs research enterprise over the past six years.
The whole idea behind those federal programs is to help universities who may have gotten a late start, like ours, kind of play catchup, Jones said. We really have done a good job of catching up. The biggest obstacle to growing the [UAF] research enterprise further right now is research space.