Benefits to Kansas
The Kansas “Working Together” partnership works well. Kansas, NASA, and the nation prosper from the benefits of the Kansas NASA EPSCoR Program, specifically the following:
- Enhances the Kansas research enterprise with more than $1.5 million of support
- Establishes a joint NASA EPSCoR, NSF EPSCoR, and NASA Kansas Space Grant Consortium program office
- Creates three research projects and augments three existing research programs
- Enhances teaching at Emporia State University and Pittsburgh State University by providing research experiences for the faculty
- Forms partnerships with the Kansas aviation industry that will improve the safety, environmental acceptability, and useful life of the next generation of aircraft
- Documents the impact of civilization on four areas of the Kansas environment
Where We Are Today
The Kansas Space Grant Consortium (KSGC) and the Kansas NASA EPSCoR Program (KNEP) are playing a major role in a cultural revolution in the Kansas research enterprise.
The Past
Before 1993, the research culture in Kansas was characterized by individual investigators, isolated at a Kansas State Board of Regents university, working with their graduate students. Typically, a researcher had little knowledge of the expertise of colleagues at other Kansas universities. This environment was fostered by the policy of state funding for Regents universities. Kansas funded its universities as a zero sum game with a fixed Regents budget. The situation was competitive among universities, with little interaction or sharing of facilities. Often a Kansas researcher’s first thought was to form a partnership with colleagues at universities in other states.
In 1993, the KSGC focused on the development of a network of individuals and organizations committed to the establishment of cooperative programs among Kansas universities, industry, and government. The KSGC Executive Committee in its strategic plan established the goal of using space grant funds to help change the culture at the state universities by providing statewide, open competitions and opportunities. The Committee also encouraged and participated in activities that brought together communities of individuals from the state universities, government, and industry.
NASA Direction
Early in 1993, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Headquarters EPSCoR office directed the KSGC Executive Committee to develop a Kansas NASA EPSCoR proposal. The committee determined the best way for Kansas researchers to become nationally competitive was to recruit the best researchers from all the universities. They created an open competition using external evaluators to give potential participants confidence this program was not business as usual.
Statewide Research Teams Started
A statewide network of science and engineering researchers was created in 1993, due to the opportunity provided by the first NASA EPSCoR solicitation. Before that, researchers with similar interests did not know the other researcher. The statewide request for proposals stimulated the KNEP Executive Committee to identify researchers having special interests and expertise. This started the development of statewide, multi-university research teams. The 1993 Kansas proposal won no funding; however, the research teams created by the proposal development process continued to collaborate, using a combination of university and Space Grant funds. The Carbon Fiber Composite cluster continued its research, funded by a special grant from NASA Headquarters.
Research Enterprise in Kansas
In the period 1993-1996, Kansas researchers and the KSGC and KNEP Executive Committees developed the research enterprise in Kansas:
- Closer relations were developed with the state government
- Junior faculty members were mentored by senior faculty
- The statewide management organization was strengthened
- Contacts were established with NASA centers and programs
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