EPSCoR announces award of $535,000 in new faculty start-up monies The North Dakota Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (ND EPSCoR) has announced that five academic departments at UND will share in $535,000 designated for five new faculty start-up opportunities. These funds are made available to departments on a competitive basis and are designed to enhance the start-up packages offered to prospective research faculty during the hiring process. Awards, which are of two years duration and begin Sept. 1, 2010, were made to the department of Biology, the department of Microbiology and Immunology, the department of Nursing and the department of Pharmacology, Physiology & Therapeutics. According to Mark R. Hoffmann, Assistant Vice President for Research and Economic Development at UND and co-project director of the ND EPSCoR Steering Committee, "the new faculty start-up awards constitute one of the most important components of the multi-faceted EPSCoR program." He went on to express appreciation to the National Science Foundation and the State of North Dakota for their support of research through this innovative program in which North Dakota?s public research universities, UND and NDSU, have been a partner since 1986. In announcing the awards, Hoffmann added, "The overall goal of ND EPSCoR is to increase the competitiveness of North Dakota for merit-based grants and contracts in support of science and technology research from federal funding agencies. New Faculty Start-up awards move UND in the proper direction towards meeting this objective." Funded through federal, state and private sector partnerships, ND EPSCoR manages a comprehensive research development plan that involves Infrastructure Improvement programs, Science Outreach and Recruitment programs, and Technology Transfer and Commercialization programs. ND EPSCoR's federal research partners include the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Department of Defense (DOD). For additional information concerning ND EPSCoR or the New Faculty Startup program, please contact Mark. R. Hoffmann, Assistant Vice President for Research and Economic Development and co-project director, ND EPSCoR – UND Campus, Twamley Hall 415, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58201-7093, 777-2492. -- Mark R Hoffmann, Co-Project Director, ND EPSCoR, markhoffmann@mail.und.edu, 777-2492