Nebraska EPSCoR FIRST Awards winners gain funding, expert reviews
To help Nebraska’s early-career scientists prepare to pursue important large research grants, such as the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award, Nebraska EPSCoR conducts annual FIRST—For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology—Awards.
Each year several dozen CAREER Award aspirants submit pre-proposals to Nebraska EPSCoR’s FIRST Awards competition, with a select group of these applicants meriting FIRST Award “Finalist” status. In late 2017, 13 Finalists were invited to advance, and prepare full proposals patterned after the NSF CAREER Award format; all FIRST Award Finalists gain expert scientific reviews on those submissions. From the Finalists group, FIRST Award Recipients are chosen to receive $25,000 for their further national award submission efforts (an amount which must be matched by each Recipient’s department), in addition to the valuable reviews by members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), engaged by Nebraska EPSCoR.
At Nebraska EPSCoR’s meeting of its State Committee on March 14, the following FIRST Award Recipients were selected:
More information about Nebraska EPSCoR’s FIRST Awards program is at https://epscor.nebraska.edu/programs/first-awards, including past Recipients since the program began in 2004. Nebraska EPSCoR conducts this program with funding through NSF RII Track-1 OIA #1557417.