NASA has selected South Carolina, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska to each receive three-year, $500,000 annual awards to enable them to develop Earth science, space science and applications, aeronautical and space research, and technology programs.

The selection is part of NASA's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). The program is designed to assist states in developing an academic research enterprise directed toward a long-term, self-sustaining, nationally competitive capability that will help contribute to the state's economic viability in the future.

Of the 14 proposals submitted, the proposals from these four states were selected after a thorough peer review process involving NASA, university, and industry experts.

The states eligible to apply for this award were those designated by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as eligible for the NSF EPSCoR and/or those states currently designated as Capability Enhancement grantees in NASA's National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program.

NSF established EPSCoR in 1979 in response to congressional concerns that federal research and development efforts were supporting only a handful of states. A decade later, in 1990, Congress began the process of expanding EPSCoR beyond NSF. Consequently, NASA, the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, and Defense, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Institutes of Health have implemented EPSCoR programs. NASA's EPSCoR program began in 1994.

As part of the Agency's Education Division, Washington, DC, NASA's EPSCoR program was conceived to improve a state's competitive research capacity in areas relevant to the agency's mission. NASA's EPSCoR goals are to contribute to a stronger science and technology base, broaden geographic participation of technologically sophisticated businesses and industries while supporting a more competitive national economy, strengthen science education and expand science and engineering training opportunities, particularly for women and minorities, and reinforce the importance of supporting science and technology.