Posted March 28, 2025 by Tiffany Lee
The Office of Research and Innovation is sponsoring an internal limited submission competition to identify the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s next team that will submit a proposal to the National Science Foundation’s EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement-Focused EPSCoR Collaborations Program (RII-FEC).
UNL may submit only one proposal to the RII-FEC competition as lead, and the goal of this internal competition is to select the team that will submit UNL’s RII-FEC proposal to the Jan. 27, 2026, deadline.
The internal limited submission competition and selection process involves two stages: submission of a notice of intent to submit a proposal (NOI), followed by submission of an internal limited submission pre-proposal. Submission of an NOI by April 21 is required to submit an internal limited submission pre-proposal.
Through the RII-FEC program, NSF seeks to strengthen science, technology, engineering and mathematics research capacity and capability of EPSCoR jurisdictions through a diverse portfolio of investments, from talent development to local infrastructure. The RII-FEC program builds inter-jurisdictional collaborative teams of EPSCoR investigators in STEM focus areas consistent with the current NSF Strategic Plan. Projects must include researchers from at least two EPSCoR-eligible jurisdictions with complementary expertise and resources necessary to address challenges, which neither party could address as well, or as rapidly, independently.
For this year’s competition, proposals must address the focus area of “Building capacity towards use-inspired research.” NSF invites proposals that are focused on enabling the interjurisdictional teams to extend foundational research by pursuing related, use-inspired research questions in any STEM area that NSF supports.
Following the NOI submission deadline, R&I will notify participating PIs about the internal limited submission pre-proposal preparation and submission process.
Those interested in learning more about the RII-FEC opportunity can access an August 2024 NSF webinar recording and slides on the NSF EPSCoR Live! website.
For more information regarding this limited submission competition, contact Matthew Dwyer, R&I’s partnerships and programs lead.
