Saint Anselm College is excited to announce its participation in the New Hampshire Long-term Investment to Fuel Transformative Research (NH-LIFT) initiative, which will increase student success through programming and partnerships that support research, mentoring, career development and retention.
Similar to the NH-INBRE program, this grant will fund undergraduate research for 3-4 students each year at the college, build research capacity through shared facilities, and offer seed grants to support faculty research. Students studying in any field the National Science Foundation (NSF) funds are eligible for this grant which could span from sciences such as biology, physics, and chemistry to social sciences like psychology and public health. This grant will open up access to facilities and equipment at partner schools and bring those schools to the Saint Anselm College’s campus.
“New Hampshire needs a more cohesive research ecosystem if it's going to attract additional investment and most fundamental research is done at universities as opposed to at companies,” said Physics Professor Ian Durham, Ph.D., co-principal investigator. “But UNH and Dartmouth simply can't handle the demand on their own. This is about harnessing our shared expertise across the state in order to keep the state competitive economically and educationally.”
The initiative is a partnership between New Hampshire’s community colleges, four-year colleges and universities, as well as industry. The funding comes through an $8 million grant to the University of New Hampshire from the NSF.
“[NH-LIFT] gives us a seat at the table and will allow us to shine a light on some of our unique programs, such as physics and classical archeology,” said Prof. Durham.
Dr. Ian Durham, a professor in the physics department, serves as a co-principal investigator for the project. Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Sheila Liotta is the senior administrator overseeing the grant, while faculty across STEM disciplines are contributing to various subcommittees.
NH-LIFT is supported by an award from the National Science Foundation EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement E-CORE program. By engaging the full spectrum of post-secondary education in the state, NH-LIFT aims to expand opportunities to contribute to the state’s innovation-based economies to more students who are ethnically diverse, first-generation or from low socioeconomic backgrounds.
Partners in the four-year NH-LIFT initiative are the Community College System of New Hampshire; UNH and Dartmouth College, the state’s two research universities; and primarily undergraduate-serving institutions Antioch University New England, Colby-Sawyer College, Franklin Pierce University, Keene State College, New England College, Plymouth State University, Rivier University and Saint Anselm College.
Molly Timberlake ’25 contributed to this story.