NSF Award
0223152
The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico through the University of Puerto Rico will implement a proposal aimed at (1) increasing the human resource base and research capacity in targeted thrust areas; (2) strengthening institutional research and development infrastructure; (3) accelerating NSF co-funding and movement of researchers into mainstream programs; and (4) continuing to transform the institutional science and technology culture. To achieve these objectives, the Puerto Rico Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (PR EPSCoR) will (1) increase the number and productivity of faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and students; (2) enhance high performance computing to support cutting-edge research that cuts across the disciplines; (3) institutionalize a research management system consistent with the significant increase in research funding and Research Extensive University status; and (4) support technology transfer and mutually beneficial collaboratives.<br/><br/>PR EPSCoR will focus on three thrust areas and six sub-areas: (1) Environmental Science and Engineering with Atmospheric and Climate Studies, Terrestrial and Coastal Ecology, and Natural Hazards Mitigation Engineering as sub-areas; (2) Information Technology Research with sub-areas Telecommunications and Networking, and Computational Sciences and Visualization; and (3) Materials Science, including Nanoscience and Nanotechnology as its only sub-area. Furthermore, Puerto Rico has established benchmarks and target milestones for women graduate students and post-doctoral researchers in the fields represented by the thrust areas.
