Increased research capacity enables DSU to take part in NSF grant

A rising research environment at Dakota State University in Madison is allowing the university to take on greater roles in collaborative research projects.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently announced a five-year, 20-million dollar Research Infrastructure Improvement Track-1 grant to the South Dakota Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (or SD EPSCoR) and the South Dakota Board of Regents.

The project is titled “Beyond the 2020 Vision: Building Research, Education and Innovation Partnerships for South Dakota” and will focus on developing a 2D Biofilm Science and Engineering Center. The six state universities, three tribal colleges, two private universities and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development are involved with the grant. 

Dakota State was involved with a previous NSF grant for a biosciences and commercial biotechnology, and will be taking on a larger role with this new grant. DSU received approximately four-percent, or about 800-thousand dollars and will be involved with three projects.

Project Director Mel Ustad said the work will begin this fall and will “enable SD EPSCoR to continue to support the collaboration of public, private and tribal colleges and universities, state government and businesses across the state to grow the knowledge economy and develop South Dakota’s workforce needs”.  

http://www.sdepscor.org/