EICC

In Fiscal Year 1993, Congressional direction precipitated the formation of the EPSCoR Interagency Coordinating Committee (EICC). The Committee on Appropriations of the United States Senate, in reporting out the Fiscal Year of 1993 Veterans, Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, page 161,

"direct(ed) the [National Science] Foundation .....[to] produce... a plan to integrate all [Experimental Programs to Stimulate Competitive Research] EPSCoR programs into a single unified effort to maximize the taxpayers investment in this effort."

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by the cognizant officials of those agencies with EPSCoR or EPSCoR-like programs agreeing to participate in an EPSCoR Interagency Coordinating Committee. The agencies included: the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The EICC serves as a working group which meets on a regular basis to achieve the following objectives:

 Coordinate Federal EPSCoR and EPSCoR-like programs on the impact of Federal support while eliminating duplication in states receiving EPSCoR support from more than one agency.

Coordinate agency objectives with state and institutional goals, where appropriate, to obtain continued non-federal support of S&T research and training. 

Coordinate the development of criteria to assess gains in academic research quality and competitiveness and S&T human resource development.

Furthermore, as members of the EICC, the agencies agreed to exchange information on pending legislation, agency policies, and relevant programs related to S&T research and training and, when appropriate, to provide responses on issues of common concern.

As the lead agency within the Federal-wide EPSCoR effort, National Science Foundation staff were designated to serve as the Chair and Executive Secretary of the EICC. Membership of the EICC is found on the NSF EPSCoR web site.