UMaine, USM land $20M grant to study sustainability
The National Science Foundation has awarded the University of Maine and University of Southern Maine a $20 million grant to create a Center for Sustainability Solutions, which will support as many as 300 research jobs in the state.
The five-year project, funded by the NSF's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, will bring together research teams from UMaine and USM, as well as government and industry stakeholders, to investigate sustainability issues related to renewable energy, alternative transportation and water resource management, according to a press release from UMaine.
The EPSCoR project will directly support 200 to 300 jobs, mainly in the research sector, as well as provide statewide education opportunities at all grade levels in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The universities will hire a handful of new faculty and professional positions to staff the program, but the majority of the jobs created will be student and faculty research internships, Vicki Nemeth, director of Maine EPSCoR, told Mainebiz this morning.
"The whole purpose is to provide infrastructure seed funding to help build research and education capacity in a particular focus area," Nemeth said. "The goal is to create something that is sustainable as its own entity after the five years, which we've had great success in this state doing."
EPSCoR directs funds to states that have historically received lesser amounts of federal R&D funding. Maine has been involved in EPSCoR since 1980 and has used funds for several successful programs, such as the Advanced Engineered Wood Composites center and the Forest Bioproducts Research Initiative.
In addition to the EPSCoR grant, the Maine Economic Improvement Fund is contributing $1 million to the sustainability project per year for five years, along with a $1 million per year in-kind contribution from UMaine in the form of faculty salaries and use of research facilities.
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