news and notes

Mandy Guinn has been named Director of the North Dakota Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (ND ESPCoR). Guinn begins in the role effective October 1.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is offering travel awards to the 2027 EPSCoR Annual Summit, which will be held in Washington, D.C., from March 18-20, 2027. The EPSCoR Annual Summit is an engaging and collaborative event focused on advancing research, sharing leading practices, and strengthening connections across EPSCoR jurisdictions. Travel awards will cover transportation, registration, and lodging for all participants.

The ND EPSCoR FY26 Annual Report is now available. View the report to learn more about our FY26 activities, including an update on ND-ACES and SPARK-ND, as well as research capacity, workforce development, and outreach activities.

The Search Committee for the North Dakota EPSCoR Director position opening invites you to participate in the open forums for the three finalists: Emily Biggane, Nigel George, and Mandy Guinn. Each candidate will give a 20-minute presentation followed by a 20-minute question-and-answer session. The topic of the presentation is "ND EPSCoR 2031: Vision and Path." Candidates will share their vision for how the ND EPSCoR program could best serve the state five years from now, and

ND ESPCoR has opened the following new funding opportunities: SPARK-ND 2026 Broadening Participation Research and SPARK-ND Intentional Collision Research Seed Award.

Jim Doolittle has let us know that he plans to retire at the end of this year. We thank Jim for his invaluable leadership in his time at ND EPSCoR, and his willingness to stay on to help the new Director get off to a successful start. We have now begun the search for his replacement.

The next EPSCoR Live! session will be held on Wednesday, July 22, at 3 PM CT. In this session, NSF colleagues will discuss the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Education and Training Application (ETAP) platform, which is a way to address the education and training needs of the scientific community by connecting researchers with applicants via its interactive one-stop platform.

Researchers and administrators from across North Dakota attended the 2026 EPSCoR Annual Summit in New Orleans this May. Here are some of the highlights from attendees and presenters.