EPSCoR Graduate Fellowship Program (EGFP): IMPACTS - Integrating Mentorship and Practice to Advance Careers in Technology & Science

The National Science Foundation (NSF), NSF EPSCoR Graduate Fellowship Program (EGFP) supports EGFP designated institutions/programs in EPSCoR jurisdictions by providing funding for graduate fellowships for eligible applicants. Institutions receive a total of three years of stipend and associated cost-of-education (COE) allowance for each NSF EPSCoR Graduate Fellow. This award at the University of South Dakota seeks to enhance research competitiveness and capacity through an investment in talent development. Fellow research topics will align with goals and programs supported by the NSF Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO), and Directorate for Engineering (ENG). The IMPACTS training model will integrate (i) mentored academic training with (ii) artificial intelligence (AI) literacy development and (iii) experiential internships, grounded in cognitive apprenticeship theory and adaptive scaffolding. Fellows will develop competencies at the intersection of use-inspired research, AI implementation, and entrepreneurial acumen. Alongside this disciplinary and technical training, the program will engage Fellows in structured activities to cultivate self-awareness, self-regulation, responsible decision-making, relationship-building, and social awareness. These are key social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies foundational to empathic and resilient scientific leadership. This concurrent multi-domain exposure is designed to produce an emergent meta-competency of translational agency that is not predictable from any single domain or training modality alone. Anticipated outcomes for Fellows will include demonstrated proficiency in use-inspired research; improved AI literacy and responsible implementation; measurable growth in SEL competency; and entrepreneurial experience to accelerate workforce entry and innovation readiness. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.