EPSCoR/IDeA expands and improves the research capability of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, technologists, and institutions in states that historically have received less funding than other states have through federal research grants.

EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) was created by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1979. IDeA (Institutional Development Award) is the corollary program at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

EPSCoR-type programs also have been developed by other federal agencies:

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UNH was instrumental in securing New Hampshire's status as an NSF EPSCoR jurisdiction in 2004, and leads the State in the research, education, outreach, and economic development activities that have followed.

The NSF NH EPSCoR program is based at UNH, and administered by the UNH Senior Vice Provost for Research and a Statewide Committee composed of representatives from industry, academia and government.

Dartmouth College and UNH are the lead institutions for the New Hampshire Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (NH-INBRE), an NIH-sponsored IDeA collaborative network of 2-year and 4-year colleges in the state of New Hampshire.

The New Hampshire NASA EPSCoR program is coordinated through the NH Space Grant Consortium of which UNH is a founding affiliate and administrator.  The NH Space Grant director is the NH NASA EPSCoR director. The UNH Senior Vice Provost for Research and a UNH Space Grant Affiliate representative are members of the NH NASA EPSCoR Technical Advisory Committee.

In the past decade, UNH has received funding from many of the agencies’ EPSCoR/IDeA programs in the form of support for individual research projects and for collaborations with other institutions and community partners across the state and northern New England.

The types of funding awarded by the various programs are shown below.