The State of Louisiana has made excellent progress in implementing the EPSCoR program over the last two years using its own resources. The EPSCoR committee remained intact and implemented the EPSCoR component projects which were rated VERY GOOD - to EXCELLENT by the NSF EPSCoR merit review process, conducted in 1986. While the projects were scaled back, due to NSF's declination of the initial proposal, the Louisiana Board of Regents provided $3.4 million and the universities provided $6.5 million to initiate EPSCoR. All of these projects have made progress. The State of Louisiana has committed $34.0 million in interest income annually from off-shore oil windfall monies to establish the Louisiana Educational Quality Support Fund (LEQSF) for education/research development. Louisiana is committed to the expenditure of at least $17.0 million of these funds in support of higher education. A portion of these funds will support the Louisiana Stimulus for Excellence in Research (LASER). As Louisiana re-submitted only those original components which were recommended as VERY GOOD - and above, no new merit reviews were requested on these components. However, a site visit to determine State commitment was conducted in August 1988. Site visitors were Dr. John Margrave of Rice University and former member of EPSCoR final panel in 1986; Dr. Dennis Willows of Friday Harbor Lab in Washington and former site visitor to Louisiana in 1986 and; Dr. Judith Sunley, Division Director for Mathematics at NSF , also a site visitor in 1986. After consideration of the initial Stage 1 technical reviews and a review of progress to date and an assessment of State commitment, all three of these reviewers gave the Louisiana Proposal high marks. At a meeting with Governor Buddy Roemer, the Governor assurred the site visit team and NSF of his personal commitment and that of his administration and the State's Legislature. The Louisiana EPSCoR Plan is a broad-based cooperative effort by the Louisiana Board of Regents and the various University units. The Committee's initial assessment of R&D barriers was impressive and has subsequently been enriched by the development of a "White Paper", prepared by the LASER committee, entitled "Prosperity Through Academic Excellence". This document was adopted by the Louisiana Educational Quality Support Fund and the Louisiana Board of Regents as policy for the State of Louisiana. The Louisiana EPSCoR proposal embraces 13 component research projects and 73 targeted researchers from 12 Louisiana Institutions. LSU and Tulane University participate in the greatest number of the projects; however, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana Marine Consortium, Southeastern Louisiana University, and Southern University all participate. The leadership of the Louisiana EPSCoR Program is excellent. The EPSCoR Chairperson and Project Director are highly qualified. Based on the above analysis and review, an award is recommended.
