MANGILAO, Guam\u2014The National Science Foundation has awarded a $6 million grant to the University of Guam through its Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, or EPSCoR, program for coastal ecosystems research. The funding is for five years and represents\u00a0one of the\u00a0single largest grants awarded in UOG history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe grant award is the culmination of a University-wide collaborative effort over the last three years,\u201d\u00a0said Dr. Robert Underwood, UOG president. \u201cThe\u00a0EPSCoR project elevates\u00a0the university into a new league for research endeavors and provides access to additional funding beyond the NSF through the EPSCoR network and a possibility of\u00a0even more in the next funding cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UOG Marine Laboratory will spearhead the\u00a0EPSCoR project, which will evaluate how marine ecosystems and fragile coral reefs respond and adapt to environmental and climate stressors. Guam will function as a \u201cliving laboratory\u201d to investigate the sustainability of marine coastal environments under changing sea levels, sea-surface temperatures, and water quality conditions in the Western Pacific.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur Marine Laboratory has been a top research location for researchers,\u201d said Dr. Terry Donaldson, UOG Marine Laboratory director.\u00a0\u201cWith EPSCoR funding, the University of Guam\u2019s capabilities will be greatly enhanced as it conducts cutting edge research on climate change effects on coral reef systems.\u201d<\/p>\n
UOG EPSCoR will incorporate scientific discoveries into regional teaching programs, graduate education and\u00a0public participation in scientific research.\u00a0The project will also enhance the University\u2019s cyberinfrastructure and Internet connectivity to meet the comprehensive data exchange requirements of the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00abWe\u203ave always been proud of the first-rate researchers and teachers at UOG, but with this award we leap-frog into the front row,\u201d said Dr. John Peterson, UOG assistant vice president of Graduate Studies, Research and Sponsored Programs. \u201cYoung scholars, faculty and students, will have new opportunities to participate and collaborate in an international network of higher education, and we expect to contribute more to our regional workforce through natural resources and IT management and support.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Principal investigator for the grant is Donaldson, and co-principal investigators are Peterson, Dr. Jason Biggs, associate professor, UOG Marine Laboratory and Dr. Laura Biggs, assistant professor.<\/p>\n
The mission of EPSCoR is to assist the National Science Foundation in its statutory function \u201cto strengthen research and education in science and engineering throughout the United States and to avoid undue concentration of such research and education.\u201d For this grant cycle,\u00a0NSF also awarded EPSCoR grants to Arkansas, Louisiana and West Virginia. (UOG)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MANGILAO, Guam\u2014The National Science Foundation has awarded a $6 million grant to the University of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[37,51,7028,445],"class_list":["post-210483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-education-2","tag-guam","tag-nsf","tag-uog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}