SD EPSCoR Track-1 Planning

July 27, 2023

SD EPSCoR is pleased to announce an update for the NSF EPSCoR E-CORE RII and E-RISE RII Proposals for South Dakota.

1. REACH Committee Deadlines for proposals due Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023, E-CORE RII and Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024, E-RISE RII:

What: Letter of Intent; Only one accepted per eligible institution.
Due: Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, 6:00 p.m. Central Time
Submit to: SDEPSCoR@sdbor.edu
Format: 2 pages (max) that includes: Title, Names of PI and co-PIs with institutional affiliations and a Project Description. 
Additional requirements: NSF-formatted CVs for PI and co-PIs. Literature cited and/or preliminary budget are optional.
Feedback: The REACH Committee will provide recommendation to proceed within 7-10 days. 

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For those LOIs recommended to proceed:

What: Full Proposal Draft
Due: Monday, Oct. 2, 2023, 6:00 p.m. Central Time
Submit to: SDEPSCoR@sdbor.edu
Format: Format determined by NSF and E-CORE RII / E-RISE RII solicitation.
Feedback: REACH will provide a letter of support to be included in the proposal submission within 7-10 days.

For questions, please contact K Doerner (Kinchel.Doerner@sdbor.edu), 605-651-9610 or 605-274-9536.

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2. SD Jurisdictional Meeting (virtual) with EPSCoR Program Officer JD Swanson. JD will be available to answer any questions you have about the E-CORE RII and E-RISE RII solicitations — or anything else regarding EPSCoR.

                10 a.m. Central Time
                Monday, July 31, 2023

                For the Zoom meeting details, please contact SDEPSCoR@sdbor.edu.

June 13, 2023

June 6, 2023

The jurisdictional steering committee, REACH, has decided that South Dakota will no longer pursue the NSF RII Track-1 funding mechanism and will not submit a Track-1 proposal this Fall. However, SD will immediately pivot to the new NSF funding model replacing the Track-1 program, the E-CORE and E-RISE Programs.

There will be two informational NSF webinars for these programs this week, for E-CORE at 12 p.m. CT this afternoon and for E-RISE at 12 p.m. CT tomorrow. Additional webinars for each program will be forthcoming. Subscribe to our listserv to be updated via the SD EPSCoR Digest twice each month. And this page (sdepscor.org/planning) will also relay the latest information.

There will be an informational Zoom meeting for the South Dakota efforts held at 10:00 a.m. CT on Thursday, June 8. Please attend if you are interested. https://sdbor.zoom.us/j/97849528158

May 2023

South Dakota EPSCoR is conducting meetings to initiate planning for South Dakota’s next NSF EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) Track-1 proposal.

Objectives are to aid in the reduction of carbon utilization of the state’s agriculture and related sectors through advances in research and artificial intelligence; strengthening the STEM workforce and industrial base; educational and outreach activities within our institutions of higher education, business, rural and tribal communities.

Status Update

A series of meetings have initiated open discussions for both the science and education/workforce areas for the next EPSCoR Track-1 proposal.

On the research side, the precise scientific project is still coming together, but will focus on a better understanding the parameters of the carbon cycle and/or greenhouse gas production in crop production. Management practices to minimize carbon use and greenhouse gas production will be developed, as well as studies investigating the social and economics of such practices. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning will play a significant role in most of the projects proposed.

On the education side, we have had a kickoff meeting and discussed what the current award is doing and brainstormed about other ideas that could be included in the next proposal. Our last meeting was Friday, March 10, where we discussed what the major programs within the next Track-1 will be. Please view the agenda. We have narrowed our focus to developing a few thrusts within the educational and workforce development area. Ben Sayler has agreed to serve as Education Lead, with the leader for each of the areas being listed below. If you have any ideas or want to be part of these planning efforts, please contact Ben or that specific leader. A tentative deadline for the first draft for Section 4.4 and the relevant section of the strategic plan is May 1, 2023.

Education Lead: Ben Sayler

  • STEM for Blind, Visually Impaired, Deaf Students: Jon Mitchell
  • K12 STEM Teacher Leaders: Kim Webber
  • TCUs: STEM Summer Inst. & Other Activities: Dana Gehring
  • Science Communication: Rhea Waldman

Previous Discussions

We scheduled two Zoom sessions for development of our NSF EPSCoR Track-1 proposal. The anticipated submission date is August 1, 2023.

Please plan on attending to learn about our broad objectives. You are encouraged to offer your ideas that would augment and work synergistically with our objectives. The objectives and thrusts will be presented at the beginning of the session. The presentations will be made available within a few days here and via our ListServ.

  • Education and Workforce Development: 2 – 4 p.m. Central Time on Thursday, April 6
  • Science and Research: 1 – 3 p.m. Central Time on Wednesday, April 12

If you did not attend a previous session and wish to be part of upcoming discussions, please complete this form.

Overall Objectives for the EPSCoR Track-1 Proposal:

  • Integration: identify 1-2 thrusts that will integrate well across the other areas; for example, the precision ag discussions should identify 1-2 areas of research that would integrate well into carbon reduction with an AI/ML component.
  • Intellectual Merit: the work is novel, hypothesis-driven, sustainable, and important to South Dakota.
  • Impact: Implementation is likely without major barriers (e.g., technical, economic, regulatory, etc.)
  • Broader Impacts: Activities can be pursued across many SD colleges and universities and of interest to tribal and other underrepresented communities.

Previous Discussions

Previous discussions to identify the scientific/research direction of the next NSF Track-1 proposal follow.

The first kickoff session was Wednesday, Oct. 12, at the SDSU Foundation Jerome J. Lohr Building (815 Medary Ave.) on the SDSU campus in Brookings.

1) Precision Agriculture: Tuesday, Oct 25
2) Carbon Reduction: Thursday, Oct 27
3) Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning: Tuesday, Nov. 1

The most recent meeting for the Education and Workforce Development efforts was Friday, March 10, via Zoom.