July 16, 2012 – The University of Utah will receive $5.4 million from a five-year, $20 million National Science Foundation grant in which a group of Utah universities and other groups will work to help study, manage and protect Utah’s scarce water supply.
The competitive grant is part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) program named EPSCoR – the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research – which is meant to promote research and development in smaller states that get a disproportionately small share of NSF funds. More than half the states are in the program.
While the principal investigator of the new grant is based at Utah State University, co-principal investigators at the University of Utah are Diane Pataki, an associate professor of biology, and Jim Ehleringer, a distinguished professor of biology.
A news release from the Utah governor’s office, USU and the Utah EPSCoR office (below) describes the research and other work to be conducted with the grant. Pataki says the University of Utah’s role in the research includes the following.
— The University of Utah will establish a watershed observatory in Red Butte Canyon, which will include measurements in the Salt Lake Valley, into which Red Butte Creek flows. USU and Brigham Young University, respectively, will establish watershed observatories on the Bear and Provo rivers.
— A “green infrastructure experimental facility” will be located on the University of Utah campus, Pataki says. It will test the effectiveness of using landscape plantings and retention facilities such as “bioswales” to clean storm water runoff.
— The University of Utah will start a new graduate fellowship program for students wanting to engage in interdisciplinary study of water issues.
— One of two “environmental situation rooms” funded by the grant will be set up on the University of Utah campus to visualize large amounts of data and see the results of new computer simulations about water resources. The other will be at USU.
The $5.4 million to the University of Utah includes $393,408 to the Natural History Museum of Utah and $113,076 to the Utah Educational Network for their roles in the program.
A National Science Foundation news release on EPSCoR grants to Utah, Wyoming and Alaska may be found at:
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=124643
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News release from Utah governor’s office
NSF AWARDS UTAH $20M TO BOOST STATEWIDE RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE
Multi-university effort aims to manage and protect state’s water resources
SALT LAKE CITY – JULY 12, 2012 – The National Science Foundation has awarded a group of Utah higher educational institutions and related organizations a five-year, $20 million competitive grant to help manage and protect one of the state’s most valuable and scarce resources, water.
The grant funds a statewide effort to assist in building the human and research infrastructure needed to sustainably manage Utah’s waters. The award, which went into effect July 1, creates iUTAH, which stands for innovative Urban Transitions and Arid-region Hydro-sustainability.
iUTAH is an interdisciplinary effort among researchers from Utah State University, the University of Utah, Brigham Young University and two dozen other Utah institutions of higher education, government agencies and industry and non-profit partners. EPSCoR partners in Alaska and Wyoming are also collaborating. The Utah EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) Office coordinated the multi-partner effort, with the support of USTAR, the Utah Science Technology and Research initiative.
“Utah is faring better than most states due in part to unprecedented partnerships in all aspects of our economy,” said Gov. Gary R. Herbert. “This public-private collaboration among so many educational, industry and government partners in tackling a key factor in long-term economic growth and quality of life is another example of our state’s can-do approach.”
The state’s largest EPSCoR award to date, the grant provides $4 million per year for five years to fund the program. iUTAH will explore how population growth, changing climate and land use affect the state’s water sustainability.
iUTAH will strategically invest in projects aimed at monitoring and improving state water usage, while informing Utah residents of sustainable practices, and educating future water scientists and managers. The program also will promote long-term collaboration among Utah institutions and provide interdisciplinary research opportunities to students and faculty from kindergarten through postgraduate school. Todd Crowl, professor in USU’s Ecology Center and Department of Watershed Sciences, is the principal investigator on the project and NSF EPSCoR director for Utah.
“Utah State University is excited to be leading this initiative to strengthen the research infrastructure across the State,” said Stan Albrecht, president of USU. “The results from iUTAH will have a dramatic impact on how we understand and respond to changing water resource availability in Utah.”
As most of Utah’s precipitation occurs as snow, the project will focus on how changing mountain snowpacks affect water supplies for the state’s growing communities. Specifically, iUTAH focuses on three main areas related to water usage: watershed, infrastructure and technology. Utah’s natural watersheds will serve as ‘living labs,’ with on-site observatories developed along the Wasatch Front. Statewide iUTAH partners will collect data from sites for evaluation.
Planned project facilities include a green-infrastructure research facility featuring controlled experimental gardens to test engineering innovations to improve Utah’s water infrastructure, runoff and water quality in an urban environment. The research facility will also include a centralized computing facility for data integration, storage and sharing.
iUTAH will develop “Environmental Situation Rooms,” designed to explore, visualize and analyze data and model simulation from all focus areas, at the U of U’s Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City and the Logan USTAR campus at USU. Central aims of iUTAH are to build a statewide community of water scholars and foster education and outreach programs on water quality and usage.
“Education, outreach, and diversity enhancement are key components of the EPSCoR program,” said Rita Teutonico, state EPSCoR director and iUTAH associate director. “iUTAH has representatives from across the state as members of the EPSCoR teams who will ensure we integrate our research and education efforts, as well as expand the diversity of the science and technology enterprise in Utah.”
USTAR, the state’s technology economic development initiative, provided initial funding for staff to support the collaborative application, Teutonico said. “I am delighted to take over state EPSCoR leadership from Suzanne Winters, after her dedicated work for the past 12 months.”
Initiated by a National Science Board resolution in 1978 and established by the National Science Foundation in 2006, EPSCoR is an experimental, federally funded state-based capacity-building program aimed at stimulating research and development in states receiving lesser amounts of NSF funding. Utah is among 27 states, along with Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, identified as EPSCoR states. Utah EPSCoR was established in 2009.
For a list of iUtah participating organizations, visit http://www.utah.gov/ustar/documents/193.pdf
Contacts:
Rita Teutonico
Utah EPSCoR state director
rita.teutonico@usu.edu
(435) 797-2466
Maren Cartwright
Utah State University
maren.cartwright@usu.edu
(435) 797-1355
Michael O’Malley
USTAR
momalley@utah.gov
801-538-8879