CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The National Science Foundation awarded a $20 million grant to West Virginia’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research Monday in an effort to help the state look for new ways to diversify the economy.
The grant will help boost academic scientific research and upgrade infrastructure at state institutions like West Virginia University, Marshall University, West Virginia State University and others.
The grant is only 1 of 4 grants awarded through the program. More than 25 states were eligible to participate and West Virginia is one of them.
Dr. Paul Hill, chancellor of the state Higher Education Policy Commission, said the research involved will focus on astrophysics statewide that will provide opportunities for physics students and scientists at WVU. The research will also look at water quality, water use and future impacts on water resources in the state, he said.
“It’s an exciting five year project where this $20 million in research funding will be used,” said Hill.
The work will allow them to hire new faculty and provide more services throughout communities, all paid for with the grant.
“It will involve summer activities for students and then there will even be some work in the K-12 system. There will be opportunities for hands-on science activities as well as some citizen science projects too,” he said.
Hill said they want to get as much people engaged in developing the information for the research over the next five years.
“Research is something that is done because we simply don’t have all the answers to all the problems, so focusing research on a set of issues in such areas as water and physics gives us the opportunity to really look into things that we don’t just fully understand.”
He said they’re hoping to gain new skills sets in students and faculty to pass along to future generations and also the creation of new products that can be marketed and turned into new business in West Virginia, in hopes of creating more jobs.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, U.S. Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito, along with Representatives David McKinley, Alex Mooney and Evan Jenkins made the announcement Monday.
Tomblin said in a news release: “Our higher education community is to be commended for competing – and winning – time and again on the national stage to bring much-needed research funding and opportunities to West Virginia,” he said. “This funding will help to strengthen our state’s STEM workforce, which is critical our ongoing efforts to grow our economy.”