Established in 1979 as a way to help broaden the distribution of federal funds for research and development (R&D), specifically at the National Science Foundation (NSF), one of the most important initiatives funneling research and development funds to states with smaller populations is the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). As more attention is paid to the growing inequality between states, programs like EPSCoR are worthy of additional consideration. Although the majority of states have seen their share of federal science and engineering R&D increase as part of the EPSCoR program, the distribution of federal funds for R&D remains very uneven.
