The South Carolina EPSCoR State Committee is seeking a new, full-time Program Director to lead the activities of the EPSCoR state office. This important and visible position supports statewide activities involving the state’s three comprehensive research universities as well as the primarily undergraduate and minority serving institutions. South Carolina is one of the original EPSCoR jurisdictions, as established by the National Science Foundation in 1980. Since its establishment, the SC EPSCoR Office has supported South Carolina in winning and managing several NSF Research Infrastructure Improvement Awards, as well as EPSCoR Awards from the Department of Energy and other agencies. The responsibilities of the Director include communication with the states’ academic and economic leaders, organizing the annual statewide conference, working with the EPSCoR office at the National Science Foundation, and managing the process for selecting future EPSCoR project submissions from the state.The Director will report jointly to the South Carolina EPSCoR State Committee and the Executive Director of the South Carolina Research Authority.

The new Director will inherit a strong and vibrant EPSCoR Office and will succeed Dr. Nadim Aziz, who is stepping down in September after about four very successful years in the position. We will pay tribute to Dr. Aziz in a future edition of this newsletter.

For the complete job description and the procedure for applying click here: Position Advertisement. We welcome inquiries and applications concerning this position. For inquiries, please contact Dr. Mike Matthews, SC EPSCoR Committee Chair.

Under the new South Carolina EPSCoR State Committee Bylaws approved on December 19, 2018 and became effective on July 1, 2019, one representative from a Predominantly Undergraduate Institution (PUI) and one representative of Private HBCUs in the state must be elected to four-year terms. We are pleased and encouraged by the number of nominations received for these two positions and hope this to be a reflection of future engagement in EPSCoR programs from an even larger number of South Carolina colleges and universities. The elections results are as follows:

Representing the Predominantly Undergraduate Institutions
 
Dr. John Wheeler, Associate Provost for Integrative Science and Professor of Chemistry at Furman University. Dr. Wheeler has been a member of the EPSCoR Committee for several years and is a co-PI on the MADE in SC NSF award, serves as the Furman University Institutional Director, the project's Workforce Development Director, and is a member of the project's senior leadership team.Beyond his personal research efforts, Dr. Wheeler has directed Furman’s INBRE program since 2005 and developed Furman’s Office of Integrative Research in the Sciences in 2008.

Representing the Private HBCUs

Dr. Godwin Mbamalu, Associate Vice President for Research and Distinguished Professor of Bio-Chem/EHS at Benedict College. Dr. Mbamalu has held several senior executive administrative positions at Benedict, including Associate Vice President and Dean of Research, Graduate/Continuing Education; Dean of Arts and Sciences, and served as Assistant Dean of  the Honors College. Dr. Mbamalu has served  as a member SC statewide Cancer Prevention and Control Program (CPCP) and continues to collaborate with faculty at other institutions on programs to reduce health disparities in South Carolina.

The Department of Defense (DoD) announces the fiscal year 2020 Defense Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR). Consistent with its long-term objectives of building research infrastructure, the DoD intends to competitively make, and fund multiyear awards for S&E research in areas relevant to the DoD’s mission and important to national security.

This funding opportunity aims to create basic research collaborations between a pair of researchers, namely 1) Applicant/Principal Investigator (PI), a full-time faculty member who has never served as a PI on a prior DoD funded award and 2) Collaborator/co-Principal Investigator (co-PI), an investigator who will provide mentorship to the PI and has served as a PI on a DoD-funded research award. This structure is aimed at introducing potential applicants to the DoD’s unique research challenges and its supportive research ecosystem. To view the Funding Opportunity Announcement with the latest updates, deadlines and related documents, click FY20 DEPSCoR FOA.