Beginning on February 15, 2023, a team of researchers, administrators, and discipline experts led by Aaron Weiskittel (University of Maine Professor of Forest Biometrics and Modeling) set out to develop a proposal for Maine’s next NSF EPSCoR Track-1 project. In consultation with relevant documents like the Maine Innovation Economy Action Plan (2023) and Maine Won’t Wait (2020), the planning team focused on leveraging Maine’s forests to find opportunities to research decarbonization, renewable resources, the green economy and more. The planning team also sought to foster linkages between existing research centers across the state to fully utilize Maine’s research infrastructure and promote transdisciplinary research. With regular project and theme meetings conducted both in-person and remotely, the team laid the foundation for Maine’s next flagship NSF EPSCoR project. Additionally, two reports were generated which can be found below.
