UMaine Receives $2.9 Million Grant from NSF Research Traineeship Program

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Traineeship Program (NRT) announced today a $2.9 million grant to Dr. Sandra de Urioste-Stone, Assistant Professor of Nature-based Tourism at the University of Maine, to lead an interdisciplinary team of UMaine faculty (from the Center for Research on Sustainable Forests [CRSF]; Department of Communication and Journalism; Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Conservation Biology [WFCB]; Ecology and Environmental Sciences [EES]; School of Forest Resources [SFR], and Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions) in developing a new graduate education model to prepare the next generation of conservation science leaders.

The project, “Enhancing Conservation Science and Practice: An Interdisciplinary Program,” is one of 17 projects funded by the NSF NRT program aimed at transforming approaches to STEM graduate education (click here for the NSF press release).  De Urioste-Stone and colleagues plan to train over 20 NSF-funded graduate students from forest resources, wildlife conservation, communications, and environmental sciences to develop interdisciplinary communication, collaboration, and professional skills necessary to address emergent conservation issues.

UMaine faculty and researchers collaborating on this project include Aram Calhoun (Professor of Wetland Ecology), Adam Daigneault (Assistant Professor of Forest, Conservation and Recreation Policy), Daniel Hayes (Assistant Professor of Remote Sensing & Geospatial Analysis), Bridie McGreavy (Assistant Professor of Environmental Communication), Sarah Nelson (Associate Research Professor and EES Program Director), Laura Rickard (Associate Professor of Risk Communications), Linda Silka (Senior Fellow, Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions), and Aaron Weiskittel (Professor of Biometrics and Modeling and CRSF Director).