URI and LSU Win $4 Million NSF EcoCARE Award to Advance Coastal Wetland Science
The University of Rhode Island (URI) and Louisiana State University (LSU) have announced a $4 million National Science Foundation Focused EPSCoR Collaboration award for EcoCARE, a project linking Louisiana’s deltaic wetlands with Rhode Island’s salt marshes to advance coastal wetland restoration and resilience.
URI leads the project under Ying Zhang, a professor of cell and molecular biology, with Xiaochen Zhao and George Xue leading the LSU side. Partners include Roger Williams University School of Law, LSU Health New Orleans, the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.
EcoCARE will develop new methods in machine-learning modeling, wetland valuation, molecular biomonitoring and restoration financing, and will share results through a public web portal, the universities said. The project supports five early-career faculty, one postdoctoral researcher and five graduate students, plus six undergraduates each year. LSU will also host a two-week paid summer workshop in years two and three for up to 15 students from community colleges and minority-serving institutions in both states.
NSF records show awards of $2.52 million to URI and about $1.48 million to LSU under the collaboration, effective September 1, 2026, and running through August 2030.
(Source: Louisiana State University)
Source: Louisiana State University
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 路易斯安那州 Atchafalaya 沼泽照片（CC BY-SA 4.0；Wikimedia Commons）/ View into the Atchafalaya Swamp, Louisiana (CC BY-SA 4.0; via Wikimedia Commons)
