... advancing general knowledge, fulfill-ing federal missions, training future scientists and engineers, and ensuring the pros-perity of universities and colleges and the economic settings in which they ... Carolina,South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming), the Commonwealth of PuertoRico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands participated in NSF’s EPSCoR program. (Note that the U.S. Virgin Islands ... functions.First, they enable universities and colleges to sustain R&D programs in scientific and engineering fields that might otherwise have difficulty securing financial support.This R&D expands the...