Collaborative research: e-core: oklahoma research, innovation, and opportunity network

The National Science Foundation Office of Integrative Activities awarded Northeastern State University a $1.293 million cooperative agreement on July 15, 2026, to serve as the administrative and operational hub for the Oklahoma Research, Innovation, and Opportunity Network (E-CORE), a statewide STEM collaboration spanning academic institutions, state agencies, industry, and community partners across Oklahoma through July 2030.

Under the Integrative Activities program (CFDA 47.083), the award funds three operational cores. The Administrative Core provides project management, research development support across participating institutions, and enhanced communication and engagement. The Research Facilities and Infrastructure Core builds a statewide network of research facilities accessible to all Oklahoma researchers, expands cyberinfrastructure for faculty and students, and establishes a support hub for artificial intelligence and machine learning applications. The Workforce Development Core establishes an academia-industry partnership consortium to fund internships and scale up undergraduate research programs, creating research experiences and internship opportunities for Oklahoma students.

The network connects the University of Oklahoma (project lead), University of Central Oklahoma, University of Tulsa, Northeastern State University, College of the Muscogee Nation, and the Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance, bridging Oklahoma City and Tulsa with rural Oklahoma including Cherokee Nation and Muscogee Nation territories. The award also coordinates with state agencies, industry leaders, and nonprofit organizations statewide to deliver innovations and drive economic growth. Place of performance is Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

Abstract

This project led by the university of oklahoma will build a strong and sustainable stem community across oklahoma. Collaborating institutions include the university of central oklahoma, the university of tulsa, northeastern state university, college of the muscogee nation, and the tulsa regional stem alliance. The project will forge a statewide network bridging academic institutions, state agencies, industry, and community partners; create new opportunities for faculty and students in oklahoma by sharing access to resources, providing seed funding, and creating internship and research experiences; and enable innovations by building capacity for transformative, cross-sector research. The network will span the two urban areas in the state (oklahoma city and tulsa) as well as the cherokee nation and the muscogee nation in rural oklahoma. The project will also coordinate with state agencies, industry leaders, and non-profit organizations across oklahoma. The project will develop a robust, sustainable research ecosystem in oklahoma that can deliver innovations and drive economic growth through three targeted focus areas: administrative core, research facilities and infrastructure core, and workforce development core. The administrative core will provide administrative support and project management, support research development at institutions across the state, and enhance communication and engagement. The research facilities and infrastructure core will build a state-wide network of research facilities that is accessible to all researchers, expand cyberinfrastructure for all oklahoma faculty and students, and create a support hub for AI and machine learning. The workforce development core will establish a statewide academia-industry partnership consortium to fund internships and develop collaborative research, scale up existing undergraduate research programs to provide opportunities to students across oklahoma, and create a statewide k-12 stem outreach system. This project is supported by the epscor research infrastructure improvement program: epscor collaborations for optimizing research ecosystems (e-core). E-core supports jurisdictions in strengthening their jurisdiction-wide research ecosystems through fostering interconnected networks, building research infrastructure, and growing research capacity and competitiveness aligned with jurisdictional priorities. 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.- subawards are not planned for this award.