EPSCoR - Cyberinfrastructure

Contacts

Dr. Ric Hauer
IoE Director at The Universitiy of Montana

Dr. Cathy Whitlock
IoE Director at Montana State University

Montana Institute on Ecosystems

Supported by the current Montana NSF EPSCoR Track 1 award, the Montana Institute on Ecosystems is a community of scholars and partners with a shared vision to advance integrated environmental sciences and related fields. We draw on the extraordinary landscapes of Montana and beyond to understand complex ecosystems including the interconnectedness of people and nature.

Montana State University and The University of Montana are working together to enhance environmental and ecosystem science research, education, and engagement across the state and beyond via the newly established Montana University System (MUS) Institute on Ecosystems. The Montana Board of Regents approved the Montana Institute on Ecosystems (IoE) on November 18, 2011. The Montana IoE culminates over two years of collaborative planning efforts and is foundationally supported by a 5-year, $20 million dollar NSF science capacity building grant to Montana.

Environmental and Ecosystem Science is one of five major research areas identified in the January 2011 Montana University System Science and Technology Plan:

"Montana is in a unique position of having one of the most pristine environments in the nation while exhibiting significant signs of environmental stress from our history of dependence on an extractive economy. This provides both the opportunity and the responsibility to conduct leading research on our own and similar environments around the world. The challenge will be to capitalize on what the environment has to offer while preserving for generations to come the lifestyle that has become a standard of Montana living."

The Montana University System Institute on Ecosystems is a response to that plan, targeting environmental and ecosystem science. This innovative statewide institute will leverage existing capacity across the entire Montana University System, with focal administrative hubs at Montana State University-Bozeman and the University of Montana-Missoula.

EPSCoR 2012 / Supported by National Science Foundation Grant EPS-1101342