Infrastructure Improvement 2010 - 2016, $22 million

 In 2010, Nebraska EPSCoR gained a five-year Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) grant, #1004094, from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to further develop its research and education infrastructure. This $20 million Track-1 project in Nanohybrid Materials & Algal Biology funded establishment of two research centers with 34 faculty members from six Nebraska institutions. An additional year of funding ($2 million) was awarded in 2015 to provide continuing support for these activities.

The Center for Nanohybrid Functional Materials (CNFM) targets the discovery and exploitation of new sensing and separation principles based upon placement of chemical or biochemical sensing elements in 3D-ordered nanostructures. The Nebraska Center for Algal Biology (NCABB) focuses on algal lipid biosynthesis and its regulation, and contributes to our understanding of molecular, biochemical, and genetic processes in algal systems.

By mid-2015, this project generated 218 journal articles or other peer-reviewed publications and $38.6M in funding through 222 grant applications. The project has supported training for 133 undergraduates, 103 graduate students, and 33 postdocs. Also, four new faculty members have been hired and retained at UNL with the support from this Track-1 award. In addition, this project has established robust STEM education and outreach activities for K-12 students--e.g., week long camps and summer research opportunities for high school students, reaching over 2,000 individuals each year.