Building an EPSCoR Community for Science and Technology Innovation

这笔拨款将促进促进竞争研究的既定计划（EPSCoR）管辖区参加一个会议，重点是扩大影响经济发展的能力。阿肯色州经济发展委员会（AEDC）将利用这笔资金为EPSCoR项目的工作人员及其来自各辖区经济发展和政策办公室的同事提供参加州科学技术研究所（SSTI）年会的津贴。此外，AEDC和SSTI将与EPSCoR管辖区的咨询委员会合作，在整个会议议程中举办会前圆桌会议和会议跟踪。这种结构将提供机会，通过扩大对其他活动的了解，并在司法管辖区内和跨司法管辖区建立更密集的专业网络，改善EPSCoR司法管辖区的影响。作为加强EPSCoR管辖区经济发展和研究能力潜力的一种手段，AEDC将召集EPSCoR利益相关者——包括管辖区办公室工作人员、商业化和经济发展专业人士以及政策制定者——参加在阿肯色州小石城举行的SSTI年度会议。在为期三天的会议期间，AEDC和SSTI将召开EPSCoR利益相关者感兴趣的多场会议，包括专门与大学在经济发展中的作用相关的会议，并将为EPSCoR管辖区的与会者举办圆桌会议，讨论他们如何更有效地利用大学研发来增加研究能力和经济发展成果的投资。因此，会议提供了一个机会，将EPSCoR和经济发展从业者社区聚集在一起，加强联系，扩大同行学习和讨论的机会，这应该转化为改善EPSCoR管辖范围内的经济发展影响。这笔赠款将使AEDC能够为EPSCoR利益相关者创建一个奖学金计划，以参加会议，然后奖学金获得者提供详细的反馈，说明活动中可用的信息和联系如何为其管辖范围内的未来政策或活动提供信息。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This grant will facilitate participation by Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) jurisdictions in a conference focused on expanding the capacity to impact economic development. The Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC) will use the funds to provide stipends to EPSCoR program staff and their colleagues from jurisdictional economic development and policy offices to attend the State Science and Technology Institute’s (SSTI) annual meeting. Further, AEDC and SSTI will work with an advisory committee of EPSCoR jurisdictions to produce a pre-conference roundtable and a track of sessions within the full conference agenda. This structure will provide opportunities to improve EPSCoR jurisdictions’ impacts by expanding knowledge of others’ activities and building denser professional networks within and across jurisdictions.As a means of strengthening the economic development and research capacity potential of EPSCoR jurisdictions, AEDC will convene EPSCoR stakeholders—including jurisdictional office staff, commercialization and economic development professionals, and policymakers—for the SSTI annual meeting in Little Rock, Arkansas. During the three-day event focused on strengthening innovation economies, AEDC and SSTI will convene multiple sessions of interest to EPSCoR stakeholders, including a track of sessions specifically related to universities’ roles in economic development, and will hold a roundtable specifically for attendees from EPSCoR jurisdictions to discuss how they can more effectively leverage university R&D to generate greater investment in research capacity and economic development outcomes. The conference therefore provides an opportunity to bring together the EPSCoR and economic development practitioner communities to strengthen connections and expand the opportunities for peer learning and discussion, which should translate to improved economic development impacts in EPSCoR jurisdictions. The grant will enable AEDC to create a scholarship program for EPSCoR stakeholders to attend the conference, with scholarship awardees then providing detailed feedback on how the information and connections available at the event may inform future policies or activities in their jurisdiction.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.