93-53653 Ballinger Nebraska EPSCoR Experimental Systemic Initiative This proposal outlines several specific initiatives that will support the Nebraska EPSCoR office's efforts to promote increased competitiveness in the research programs of faculty of the four academic research institutions in Nebraska. The projects are grouped into three general areas of activity including travel associated with grant or collaborative research opportunities, disciplinary research conferences, and educational programs to increase the number of women and minorities in science disciplines. Travel programs involve opportunities for junior faculty to visit program officers in federal agencies and to explore collaborative research opportunities in national research labs and industry. Conferences include an international conference in atomic collisions physics, an intrastate conference in regulatory peptide research, and possibly an additional intrastate conference to stimulate increased collaboration among scientists of the state's four research universities. Educational programs are focused on engineering and biomedical science at the pre-college level, biochemistry at the college level, and water science at the graduate level.
