Louisiana EPSCoR Objectives

Louisiana EPSCoR (LA EPSCoR) is focusing on establishing and strengthening a variety of collaborations among the State's research and development constituents. Its objectives are to:

• Assist Louisiana researchers to become more competitive in gaining national research and development support and more actively engaged in science and technology transfer activities with business and industry
• Help Louisiana institutions more effectively educate larger numbers of science and engineering students, especially minorities, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels

Program Highlights

LA EPSCoR and LA Board of Regents: A Winning Partnership

• Since joining EPSCoR in 1987, Louisiana has been awarded more than $72 million in EPSCoR awards, of which more than $23.6 million was from NSF.
• The Board of Regents' portion of the Louisiana Educational Quality Support Fund has provided matching funds of more than $28.2 million for the EPSCoR grants, including more than $15.1 million for EPSCoR awards.
• Together, LA EPSCoR and the Regents have funded statewide EPSCoR or EPSCoR-like programs of the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, National Institutes of Health, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and NSF. Most were multi-institutional with interdisciplinary research teams.
• LA EPSCoR and the Regents have been catalysts for collaborations, bringing together research programs of universities across the State.

Research Infrastructure Improvement Award

A consortium of nine Louisiana universities collaborating on micro- and nano-scale science and technology research is the centerpiece of the $9 million NSF Research Infrastructure Improvement grant awarded to LA EPSCoR. Another $3 million in matching funds from the Board of Regents Support Fund and $3.8 million pledged by participating universities and private industry brings the 3-year funding to $15.8 million.

The research consortium is focusing on the design and fabrication of enhanced electromagnetic materials using ultrathin films and nanometer-scale material structures. Magneto-electronic materials have extensive military and commercial applications.

Within 18 months of receiving the grant, the consortium had:

• Been awarded 27 grants totaling more than $10.3 million in external funding
• Been awarded eight Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) grants
• Been awarded 3 patents with another 15 pending
• Submitted 5 patent disclosures and 7 reports of invention
• Recruited 25 new researchers, 11 of them women and/or minorities
• Supported 9 postdoctoral candidates, 31 graduate students, 15 undergraduate students, and 1 high school student
• Graduated 18 of their student researchers with Ph.D. or M.S. degrees, and 2 with B.S. degrees
• Made 132 presentations and produced 181 publications
• Attracted private sector interest in establishing collaborative and/or marketing arrangements for many research projects with strong commercial potential
• Sponsored a summer research program attended by 41 students and 6 high school teachers, 31 of them women and/or minorities