Phase III: Improvement of the Academic Research Infrastructure

堪萨斯科学技术高级研究计划（K* 星星）增强了堪萨斯大学、堪萨斯州立大学和威奇托州立大学的研究竞争力。 K* 星星计划：在合作研究项目中将这些大学的教员联系起来;提供共享的主要设备资源;尽早为初级教员提供资金，以提高他们获得联邦赠款的竞争力;并鼓励大学、州和私营部门之间建立研究伙伴关系。 包括：一个新的教师招聘组成部分，以填补机构的研究人员的差距;多用户仪器的收购/升级，以允许所有研究人员增加可以进行的研究范围;和第一奖赠款，以帮助早期职业教师成为更有竞争力的校外研究资金。 特别倡议赠款是一次性的机会性投资，包括：（a）协助培养国家竞争力、高性能计算和联网能力;（B）EPSCoR研究人员与私营部门之间的伙伴关系，以实现技术转让;（c）第（1）款研究生教育和人力资源开发的创新计划，扩大学生的职业选择，并促进代表性不足的群体的成员进入（&d）短期访问，与工业和/或国家实验室建立合作研究联系。 规划赠款，同时，允许教师开发创新的研究建议，重点放在指定为国家和机构的研发重点领域。

The Kansas Science and Technology Advanced Research Program (K*STAR) enhances research competitiveness at the University of Kansas, Kansas State University and Wichita State University. K*STAR programs: link faculty members of these universities in cooperative research projects; provide shared major equipment resources; fund junior faculty early on to increase their competitiveness for federal grants; and stimulates formation of research partnerships among the university, state and private sectors. Included are: a New Faculty Hires component to plug gaps in the institutions' research staffing; Acquisition/Upgrading of Multi-user Instrumentation to allow all researchers increase the scope of research that can be conducted; and First Award grants to help early-career faculty become more competitive for extramural research funding. Special Initiative Grants are one-time, opportunistic investments that include: (a) assistance to foster nationally competitive, high-performance computing and networking capabilities; (b) partnerships between EPSCoR researchers and the private sector to effect technology transfer; (c) innovative programs in graduate education and human resource development that expand student career options and facilitate the entry of members of underrepresented groups into high-demand S&T fields; and (d) short-term visits to establish cooperative research links to industrial and/or national laboratories. Planning Grants, meanwhile, allow faculty to develop innovative research proposals focused in areas designated as state and institutional R&D priorities.