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Alabama coalition is building a new statewide industry, backed by National Science Foundation

sandra richardson final headshot
Successful completion of two EPSCoR awards valued at $40 million will be a foundation for Alabama’s engagement with large-dollar funding opportunities at NSF and beyond, says Dr. Sandra Richardson.

A 10-year, $40 million federal investment in plasma science and engineering (PSE) in Alabama has produced tangible results that are very encouraging, according to Dr. Sandra Richardson, the section head for the Research Capacity and Competitiveness Section in the Office of Integrative Activities at the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Alabama is powering toward regional and national leadership in the high-technology PSE industry by building a homegrown collaborative base for research, new technology development and commercialization, as well as a knowledgeable workforce. Sustained support by the NSF’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) is expanding Alabama’s expertise in plasma, a versatile, highly energized form of gas that has numerous scientific and commercial applications.

“The overall mission of EPSCoR is aligned with making Alabama a leader in plasma science and engineering research and workforce development,” says Dr. Richardson, the NSF’s Alexandria, Va.-based leader for the effort. “We are excited to support the jurisdiction in growing in new ways to further expand participation and research competitiveness in the state’s research ecosystem.”

two awards

NSF EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) Track-1 awards have backed two successive projects, both managed at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), and there’s the possibility of much larger funding ahead.

The current grant is the $20 million, five-year Future Technologies & enabling Plasma Processes (FTPP) project directed by Dr. Gary Zank, the Aerojet Rocketdyne chair of the Department of Space Science and also director of the Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research (CSPAR) at FTPP partner UAH. This grant consecutively follows an earlier five-year, $20 million grant called CPU2AL: Connecting the Plasma Universe to Plasma Technology in Alabama.

FTPP is a coalition of nine Alabama universities and a research corporation. Besides UAH, partners include the University of Alabama, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Auburn University, Tuskegee University, the University of South Alabama, Alabama A&M University, Alabama State University, Oakwood University and CFD Research Corp.

“Plasma science and engineering has the potential to transform many areas of modern society,” says Dr. Richardson. “From the creation of novel materials, agricultural applications, sterilization and food safety, all the way to space weather forecasting, developing PSE transformational technologies will help to shape Alabama’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) enterprise.”

FTPP is integrating components of experimental and theoretical plasma research to create a diverse and skilled workforce to strengthen PSE capacity in Alabama. It has linked the partner institutions strongly together in a collaborative environment.

“Building these partnerships sets the stage for future collaborations and increases institutions’ ability to leverage the funding and resources provided by EPSCoR for further funding and growth,” Dr. Richardson says.

“Cementing these partnerships, building on long-standing collaborative relationships, creates a strong foundation on which to build the PSE enterprise in Alabama. The NSF director, Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan, continuously promotes the power of partnerships.”

homegrown results

The NSF’s investments in Alabama PSE have resulted a string of homegrown results. Transformational technologies with commercialization potential being developed in FTPP include:

  • Machine learning enabled plasma synthesis of high-entropy materials that can function in extreme environments and materials for quantum information systems;
  • Plasma surface modification of carbon extracted from waste materials and their incorporation in high performance composite materials;
  • Plasma synthesis of nanoparticles and their incorporation in biomaterials for antimicrobial properties as well as applications of atmospheric plasmas in agriculture;
  • Plasma mitigation of food safety risks in poultry products; and
  • Geospace radiation space weather tools to prevent damage in critical infrastructure in space and on the ground.

“Also, from NSF EPSCoR’s investments in FTTP, we know that two leading plasma technologies now in the commercialization pipeline are a small-diameter artificial vascular graft for dialysis access and an accurate space weather forecasting system,” Dr. Richardson says.

“The artificial vascular graft is being developed in partnership with the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs. A medical device manufacturer will license the rights to the device from The University of Alabama at Birmingham and manufacture and sell it in Alabama and nationwide,” she says. “The graft is likely to help patients who are reporting kidney infections and cases of blood clots, and may result in sales of up to $50 million a year.”

The space weather forecasting effort at UAH that’s being developed by CSPAR already has received NASA Small Business Innovation Research supporting grants.

Additionally, FTPP has had these outcomes:

  • FTPP researchers have leveraged their EPSCoR funding to attain 10 additional grants totaling $16.2 million since the project’s inception. There are an additional 34 grants pending, worth up to $22.5 million;
  • There have been 80 publications generated from the FTPP research so far; and
  • There are currently 103 graduate and undergraduate students working on the FTPP project.

regional springboard

FTPP is considered a springboard to an even larger possible NSF grant of up to $160 million under a program that would fund Regional Innovation Engines. Achieving that level of support would establish Alabama as a Southeastern regional hub for plasma expertise and boost the creation of thousands of high-paying technical careers in the state and region.

“A successful completion of two EPSCoR RII Track-1 awards, valued at $40 million over 10 years, along with the multiple other investments supporting CPU2AL and FTPP research, serve as a foundation for Alabama’s engagement with large-dollar funding opportunities at NSF and beyond,” says Dr. Richardson.

Each NSF Engine will support the development of diverse regional coalitions of researchers, institutions, companies and civil society to conduct research and development that engages people in the process of creating solutions with economic and societal impacts. Through the process, NSF Engines will train and develop the local workforce and grow regional innovation ecosystems throughout the U.S.

Plasma science and engineering is a key STEM priority in Alabama, as indicated in the state’s science and technology plan, Dr. Richardson says.

“As such, it is critical for NSF to contribute to the growth of research and training in the area to broadly impact the research ecosystem in Alabama,” she says.

Alabama is one of 28 NSF EPSCoR jurisdictions. In last fiscal year, the program’s RII awardees collectively published nearly 1,300 journal articles, book chapters and related research materials; received nearly $500 million in additional research funding; patented nine discoveries with an added 49 patents pending; and supported over 500 undergraduate and graduate students in completion of their STEM degrees.

“Alabama has been eligible for EPSCoR programs for almost 40 years – since 1985,” Dr. Richardson says, receiving a total investment of $185 million since it became EPSCoR eligible.

“Together, this EPSCoR RII funding is helping to increase Alabama’s competitiveness for other funding. For example, in the past 20 years, Alabama’s NSF proposal success rate has increased from 20.3% in 2004 to 26.3% in 2023.”

EPSCoR’s long history of helping to build Alabama’s STEM capacity has proven successful, she says.

“According to the most recent NSF EPSCoR Congressional Report, Alabama has increased its share of NSF funding by 160% since 1985. This is amazing, and NSF EPSCoR has been a critical driver for Alabama’s research capacity growth.”

Beyond NSF EPSCoR, the NSF is committed to supporting Alabama in leveraging its research outcomes from NSF EPSCoR funding to further build the state’s STEM capacity in alignment with the state’s science and technology (S&T) plan, according to Dr. Richardson.

“By investing in building the S&T that drives the plasma science and engineering industry, NSF is truly impacting the overall STEM capacity, workforce development, training and economic development in Alabama.”