Alaska NSF EPSCoR
Launched in 2001, Alaska NSF EPSCoR is a statewide program dedicated to strengthening scientific research capacity and broadening participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in Alaska. Through multiyear, collaborative statewide programming, Alaska NSF EPSCoR enhances STEM education, builds a robust workforce infrastructure and creates a positive impact on the livelihoods and well-being of all Alaskans.
The state’s current primary source of EPSCoR funding is its five-year NSF EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Program Track-1 (RII Track‑1) project, titled “Interface of Change (IoC): Building collaborations to assess harvested and farmed marine species prioritized by Gulf of Alaska (GoA) communities.” Alaska EPSCoR is also supported through state match funding.
Interface of Change Runs on Collaboration
IoC researchers investigate how environmental drivers impact their major research areas – red seaweeds, mariculture biofouling, bivalves, anadromous fish, and community well-being – which were identified with input from a diverse group of Alaskans. The place-based program centers the communities of Haines, Klukwan, and Juneau in Southeast Alaska, Cordova and Valdez in the Prince William Sound, and Seldovia and Homer in the northern Gulf of Alaska.
Partnership is central to the project. Researchers work in tandem with Gulf of Alaska community members, Tribes, industry, educators, and entrepreneurs in co-developed, use-inspired research. Project participants work collaboratively to better understand the resilience of marine species that are critical to the subsistence way of life, and to bolster developments in the Gulf of Alaska’s mariculture economy.
