NASA EPSCoR in the Virgin Islands

The United States Virgin Islands (USVI) has entered a new era in its partnership with NASA to promote STEM research, education, and outreach in the territory. Over the past 6 years, the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) has led a focused effort to leverage existing facilities and faculty expertise to raise the level of awareness of, participation in, and support for NASA-related science activities in the USVI. Seven years ago, UVI had $0 in NASA federal awards, only 1 full-time physics faculty, and no scientists in the territory were submitting competitive proposals to NASA's Cooperative Agreement Notices (CAN). Over the past 7 years, UVI has raised its level of CAN responses to 5 per year (academic 2017-18), its level of NASA-sponsored research and education support to more than $1,000,000 per year (academic 2017-18), and now employs 7 full-time physics faculty and researchers.

This dramatic growth in NASA-related research activities at UVI was initiated through a 2013 NASA-EPSCoR Research Award that supported revitalization of research instrumentation at UVI's Etelman Observatory, provided student funding for authentic research experiences at the Observatory and at our NASA partner, Goddard Space Flight Center, and provided funding to hire the first-ever full-time astrophysics resident observer-researcher at UVI (stationed at Etelman Observatory). The success of this project coincided with an unprecedented growth in interest and enrollment in physics and astronomy courses at UVI from 2009-2014(see Figure 1, below) as well as a dramatic increase in scientific production in physics and astronomy.

This dramatic increase in physics and astronomy activity at UVI led to our successful submission of a NASA-MIRO proposal, in 2015, to support the first-ever 4-year degree in physics at UVI, designed to capitalize on the success of our ongoing NASA EPSCoR-funded project and to better meet the increased demand for physics offerings at UVI. Through the new UVI physics program, UVI has hired 3 new full-time physics faculty who now support this increasing demand for physics and astronomy offerings at UVI with research projects and additional courses in physics and astronomy. We have also dramatically increased the number of students doing research at UVI and with our research partners.

This unprecedented growth in faculty and student research activity in the USVI together with rapidly growing ranks of faculty and researchers with NASA-related research interests and highly-trained students in physics and astronomy, has provided an unparalleled opportunity to embed NASA research activities as a cornerstone of the STEM educational experience in the USVI. Through NASA-EPSCoR RID funding in 2016-2018 we have:

*Established the first-ever NASA-seed-grant program at UVI *Funded several UVI students to do research at UVI both through direct funding and through seed grants *Supported travel for several UVI students to national meetings *Supported 2 USVI high school students to do research at UVI during the summer. *Supported the hiring of a dedicated NASA grants administrator at UVI to assist in all grant-related activities and reporting in the USVI

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