Dive Brief:

• The National Science Foundation is doling out $20 million awards to six universities to study economic and environmental factors related to climate change.
• The foundation’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research has awarded the five-year grants to the University of Kentucky Research Foundation, University of Maine, University of Missouri-Columbia, North Dakota State University, South Dakota State University, and University of the Virgin Islands.
• The general areas of study are sustaining crop yields for Missouri, South Dakota, and North Dakota; coastal ecology for Maine and the Virgin Islands; and energy and sustainable materials for Kentucky and North Dakota.

Dive Insight:

The National Science Foundation emphasizes in its press release that the grants will support not just research, but also science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and workforce development, which should create jobs and stimulate the economy. That emphasis may be aimed at trying to take some of the heat off of the foundation on the political hot potato that is climate change.