{"id":10245,"date":"2015-11-09T14:16:40","date_gmt":"2015-11-09T19:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/?p=10245"},"modified":"2015-11-09T14:16:40","modified_gmt":"2015-11-09T19:16:40","slug":"building-a-better-rhode-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/2015\/11\/09\/building-a-better-rhode-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a better Rhode Island"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Christine<\/a>
Christine Smith, executive director, Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Federal and state grants grow talent, jobs and business while setting the stage for scientific discovery at Rhode Island institutions<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Ocean State\u2019s investment to grow the economy through research and development is reaping dividends through scientific breakthroughs, building an educated workforce, creating new business opportunities, and sustaining job creation.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the 24th<\/sup> NSF EPSCoR National Conference<\/a> in Portsmouth, NH, Tuesday, Nov. 3, Christine M.B. Smith, executive director of the Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council<\/a> (STAC), said collaborative grants awarded to Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR<\/a> researchers served as the state\u2019s match to the federal grant program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To date, since 2010, Rhode Island has invested $10.6 million in 71 team projects, according to Smith, who also serves as director of Innovation Programs for Commerce RI<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat has returned more than $50 million back to the state in the form of grants for continued research, new federal programs, infrastructure improvements, commercialization of new products and launch of new companies,\u201d said Smith, a featured speaker on the panel, \u201cThe EPSCoR Trifecta: Research, Science & Technology, and Economic Development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, Smith\u00a0said, during the five-year EPSCoR grant, 60 percent of the Rhode Island funding through the RI STAC collaborative awards sustained or created 198 jobs, and 38 percent of the funding supported student training.<\/p>\n

Created a little more than 10 years ago, RI STAC evolved from the EPSCoR grant planning committee and today is chaired by the vice presidents of research at Brown University<\/a> (David Savitz) and University of Rhode Island<\/a> (Gerald Sonnenfeld). The 13-member board represents the academic, business and policy leadership of the state, and meets on a regular basis to review progress and develop new recommendations for enhancing research and development, supporting entrepreneurial activity, and increasing innovation in Rhode Island.<\/p>\n

\"Christine<\/a>
RI STAC Executive Director Christine M.B. Smith details the great impact of state support of Rhode Island EPSCoR research during a presentation at the national EPSCoR conference in New Hampshire last week. Photo by\u00a0Lillian Gamache, Vermont EPSCoR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe have, from the very start, always envisioned, spoken about and funded Rhode Island EPSCoR as a state economic development vehicle,\u201d Smith said. \u201cRI STAC is dedicated to creating economic opportunity and job growth by making Rhode Island a world class center for research and development built on the state\u2019s unique strengths in science, technology, engineering, and design.\u201d<\/p>\n

The RI STAC collaborative research grants are awarded to multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional teams that demonstrate a clear path to securing additional or follow-on funding.<\/p>\n

Citing one example, Smith pointed to the work of Lucie Maranda<\/a>, URI Graduate School of Oceanography <\/a>associate marine research scientist and professor-in-residence, with a Rhode Island company to develop an anti-fouling coating for use in marine settings. The company, which didn\u2019t have the research capacity, teamed up with Maranda, who had the knowledge, expertise and infrastructure to support the research initiative.<\/p>\n

The outcome, Smith said, showcases STAC\u2019s efforts to inspire collaboration by providing seed funding for research projects that are well positioned to attract substantial follow-on investment, and support and accelerate conversion of scientific discovery and pioneering technologies into products, businesses and jobs.<\/p>\n

By Amy Dunkle<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Federal and state grants grow talent, jobs and business while setting the stage for scientific discovery at Rhode Island institutions The Ocean State\u2019s investment to grow the economy through research and development is reaping dividends through scientific breakthroughs, building an educated workforce, creating new business opportunities, and sustaining job creation. Speaking at the 24th NSF […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21,1],"tags":[153,360,465,570,585],"class_list":["post-10245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized","tag-christine-m-b-smith","tag-lucie-maranda","tag-nsf-epscor","tag-rhode-island-nsf-epscor","tag-ri-stac"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}