Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King announced that the University of Maine has been awarded $2,998,114 to support graduate research on the rapidly changing Arctic.  This funding was awarded through the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Research Traineeship Program to train graduate students in the interdisciplinary field of Arctic systems science.  The project anticipates training 57 MS and Ph.D. students, including 20 funded trainees from Ecology, Earth Sciences, Anthropology, Economics, and Marine Sciences.

“STEM education is extremely important in today’s rapidly changing world,” said Senators Collins and King in a joint statement.  “This important funding will allow the University of Maine to better train graduate students in the interdisciplinary field of Arctic systems science, supporting further research of the environmental changes in Greenland, the Arctic-North Atlantic, and Maine.”

The NSF supports research, innovation, and discovery in order to provide a foundation for economic growth in America. Founded in 1950, the NSF is an independent federal agency that works to advance the frontiers of science and engineering so that our nation can develop the knowledge and cutting edge technologies needed to address current and future challenges.