OUR RESEARCH
A Partnership of Higher Education, Private Industry and State Government.
Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research
A Partnership of Higher Education, Private Industry and State Government.
The Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) is a program designed to fulfill the National Science Foundation's (NSF) mandate to promote scientific progress nationwide. The EPSCoR program is directed at those jurisdictions that have historically received lesser amounts of NSF Research and Development (R&D) funding. Twenty-eight states, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U. S. Virgin Islands and Guam are currently eligible to participate.
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The BREE project helps identify strategies for resilience in the social ecological system of the Lake Champlain Basin. Research methods include creation of a new soil sensor network, leveraging of existing water sensors for redeployment, and development of new models, including land use and network models that capture the cognitive behaviors and opinions of land users and policy makers.
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The VT EPSCoR Center for Workforce Development and Diversity works to cultivate and prepare students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. Through integrating students and teachers into active research we inspire students to pursue STEM careers. The CWDD helps connect interested students in social science and STEM areas with faculty researchers throughout Vermont at multiple institutions.
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| NSF RAPID Funding Opportunity for COVID-19 Research |
NSF has issued a Dear Colleague Letter inviting RAPID proposals for research related to coronavirus (COVID-19).
LEARN MORE| Asim Zia receives Fulbright Global Scholar Award to achieve access to clean water through community-based solutions and internat |
Asim Zia, Ph.D. serves as VT EPSCoR Science Co-Leader for the Integrated Assessment Model Team (IAM) with the Basin Resilience to Extreme Events in the Lake Champlain Basin (BREE), RII Track-1 Award. As a Fulbright Scholar, Zia will spend time in Pakistan, Israel and Ecuador working at the local, national and international policy levels to improve border relations and water use practices, as well as within communities to inspire grassroots social change.
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| Socialpsychological determinants of farmer intention to adopt nu |
Successful adaptation to global climate change and enhancement of agricultural watersheds' resilience requires widespread use of Nutrient Best Management Practices (NBMPs) by farms of all sizes. In the US, adoption of many NBMP practices is voluntary and insufficient to achieve local and downstream conservation objectives. Despite evidence that both social-psychological factors and socio-economic factors influence farmer decision-making, very few studies of farmers' decision-making related to NBMP adoption combine these two factor groups in a theoretically rigorous way. To better understand farmers' management decisions, we test the social-psychological Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to determine the relative influence of attitudes, perceived social norms, and perceived behavioral control on adoption of nine NBMPs. A survey was designed by the research team and implemented by the U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA-NASS) in 2013, and replicated in 2016, on a stratified sample of 129 farmers (including panel data on 56 farmers). Farmers were located in the Missisquoi, and Lamoille River watersheds of the Lake Champlain Basin in the Northeast region of the United States. Survey responses revealed variation in past adoption of NBMPs was sensitive to practice type and farm size. We developed nine weighted structural equation models to test endogenous (social-psychological) and exogenous (policy, economic and demographic) predictors of farmer intention to adopt NBMPs. We found that perceived behavioral control had the largest effect size and strongest statistical significance on the farmers' expressed intentions to adopt NBMPs in the future. For a subset of NBMPs, perceived social norms and farmer attitudes toward these NBMPs were each also significant drivers of intention to adopt individual practices. Among the exogenous variables, we found that large farm size, college education, and having a conservation easement all had a positive influence on farmers' intention to adopt NBMPs. This study suggests that for widespread adoption of NBMPs, environmental managers, policy makers, and program developers should be attentive to farmers' perceived behavioral control, and support the design and execution of outreach and technical assistance programs that build on drivers of farmers decision making.
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Vermont EPSCoR provides the opportunity for Vermont small businesses to compete for grants to foster research and development projects which will lead to application to federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs.
The main goal of the Vermont ESPCoR Phase (0) solicitation is to identify proposals that show promise for success in federal SBIR competitions
Vermont EPSCoR seeks collaborative proposals from higher education – small business partnerships for research that is complementary to our BREE research. These awards are for innovation; and to move research forward. While undergraduate support is allowed, Pilot Awards are not intended for primarily undergraduate research.
LEARN MOREVT EPSCoR is excited to offer travel awards to Vermont entrepreneurs who wish to attend various SBIR/STTR related conferences.
LEARN MOREThe Undergraduate Internship Program offers students the opportunity to participate in current research conducted through the Basin Resilience to Extreme Events (BREE) program. Undergraduates selected to participate in the BREE program will be matched with a research team of faculty and graduate students working on the transdisciplinary BREE research program. Students perform full-time research for 10 weeks during the summer with a faculty members. In April, students give an oral presentation or poster presentation of their research results.
LEARN MOREThe VT EPSCoR Center for Workforce Development and Diversity (CWDD) works to cultivate and prepare a diverse science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce in Vermont by inspiring students to enter STEM careers. As part of our work we are pleased to award $5,000 scholarships to Native American (including Abenaki) and First Generation college students who enter STEM majors at a Vermont college or university.
LEARN MOREThe High School Program offers students and teachers the opportunity to participate in current research. Through involvement in the Basin Resilience to Extreme Events (BREE) research program, participants develop skills in scientific methods and Earth systems thinking and experience what it is like to be a scientist.
LEARN MOREResearch can be a powerful way for teachers to enhance science content. The goal of the VT EPSCoR CWDD middle level outreach program is to expose middle level teachers and students to scientific research.
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