Champlain Awarded First Direct National Science Foundation Grant

Champlain College was awarded $400K from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) as part of NSF’s first-ever Enabling Partnerships to Increase Innovation Capacity (EPIIC) investment, totaling $19.6 million.

“Receiving this EPIIC award from the National Science Foundation is monumental for Champlain College,” said Alex Hernandez, Champlain College President. “As our first direct award from the NSF, this development will allow us to refine what industry partnerships look like for the College, build infrastructure to support future applied research, help accelerate our new degrees and programs in STEAM, and provide crucial collaboration opportunities with other institutions.”

Champlain is one of 50 U.S. higher education institutions awarded in this inaugural program.

As a leader in career-focused learning, Champlain College will use the EPIIC investment to advance its workforce and industry partnerships across the state, preparing the emerging workforce for jobs in leading science and technology fields. The College will also receive training and support from NSF to build innovation capacity and secure future funding by tapping into regional ecosystems.

This investment will open new doors for our students and faculty.

Professor Brian Hall

“It’s an absolute honor to be a part of something as big as the NSF Engines Program and TIP Directorate,” said Brian Hall, Champlain College Professor in the Division of Information Technology & Sciences and Principal Investigator for the EPIIC project. “This investment will open new doors for our students and faculty.”

The College partnered with Christopher Newport University and Western Oregon University to submit a collaborative proposal. Together, they were awarded $1.2 million and will work collectively to explore and pilot models that help establish and sustain industry partnerships for workforce development. At Champlain, the program will run through the college’s Emergent Media Center (EMC), an interdisciplinary Center of Experience at Champlain committed to educating and inspiring the next generation.