(C) El Paso Matters.org This story was originally published by El Paso Matters.org and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . 6 things to help you understand UTEP’s NSF grant suspension [1] ['Daniel Perez', 'More Daniel Perez', 'El Paso Matters', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width'] Date: 2024-05-21 The National Science Foundation recently suspended what could have amounted to a $160 million grant to the Borderland over the next 10 years, pending an investigation. The NSF hasn’t said what it is looking into, but the University of Texas at El Paso has said an internal investigation found possible incorrect statements in the original proposal. Here’s what you need to know. What does the NSF and its Regional Innovation Engines program do? The National Science Foundation, created by Congress in 1950, is an independent federal agency that supports research and education in nonmedical fields of science and engineering. It awards almost $8 billion in grants each year. The Regional Innovation Engines program was created to support 10 regional collaborations among industry, nonprofits, government and academia, in research and development to generate ideas for technologies and processes that create economic opportunities for communities. The Paso del Norte Defense and Aerospace Innovation Engine aimed to build the aerospace and defense manufacturing capabilities in the region. It involves 18 partners from eight counties in West Texas and Southern New Mexico. Other regional engines planned to focus on water, energy, semiconductors, climate resilience, energy storage, textile innovation, sustainability, agriculture technology, and regenerative medicine. What is the difference between the UTEP Aerospace Center and the Paso del Norte Defense and Aerospace Innovation Engine? The Aerospace Center was founded in 2001 by Ahsan Choudhuri as the Combustion and Propulsion Research Lab. In 2009, the NASA MIRO Center for Space Exploration Technology Research was established in partnership with NASA and the departments of Defense and Energy, as well as numerous industry partners. The center aims to develop talent and research valuable to the space, defense and energy industries, and to build advanced manufacturing capabilities. UTEP’s Aerospace Center and the W.M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation, led by Ryan Wicker, organized the coalition of community partners that became the Paso del Norte Defense and Aerospace Innovation Engine. The group’s proposal earned one of the NSF’s Regional Innovation Engines awards. Among the partners are the city and county of El Paso, Spaceport America, Workforce Solutions Borderplex, El Paso Community College, the Rio Grande Council of Governments, and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining. The Fabens Airport in Fabens, Texas, is one of the resources potentially at issue in the suspension of the grant that the National Science Foundation had awarded to UTEP. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters) What happened with UTEP’s NSF grant proposal? The university said it discovered problems with the proposal for the NSF’s Regional Innovation Engines program on or about April 6. On April 25, the NSF directed UTEP to suspend work on the grant pending further review, though a university spokesman said that the NSF made its decisions without prompting from UTEP. An institutional review found that the application promised resources that UTEP did not have – hangers at the county-owned Fabens Airport and 8,000 acres of test range in El Paso’s Lower Valley near the airport. In a May 6 statement from Bob Blumenfeld, Choudhuri’s attorney, states that UTEP reviewed, supported and approved the application before it was submitted to the NSF. Additionally, it states that the proposal’s content and core concepts were developed by Choudhuri with the cooperation of UTEP and its local government partners over several years where all parties could vet the plan. “If there was anything amiss with those core proposal concepts, the collaborators supporting the grant – including the leadership at UTEP – would have pointed them out and corrected them along the way, well before the grant proposal went forward,” Blumenfeld said. “This never happened.” According to Choudhuri’s legal team, the professor has not included any false or materially misleading statements in submissions connected to the NSF grant. UTEP said it alerted the NSF of its findings on May 6, and on the same day notified the media about the issue. The NSF asked its Office of Inspector General, an independent investigative authority, to review the allegations. The investigation could be done in a few weeks. What was included in UTEP’s NSF grant? The NSF announced on Jan. 29 that it had awarded one of 10 regional engine grants to the Paso del Norte Defense and Aerospace Innovation Engine. It included up to $15 million over the first two years, and up to $160 million over 10 years. That money came from the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. The project, with a focus on robotics and advanced manufacturing, would build the infrastructure and capabilities of small- to medium size businesses in West Texas and Southern New Mexico and enable them to bid on federal defense and aerospace contracts. Who is Ahsan Choudhuri? UTEP’s Ahsan Choudhuri led the El Paso coalition that won a $40 million grant through the Build Back Better Regional Challenge, Sept. 2, 2022. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters) The application process was led by Choudhuri – who at the time served as associate vice president of UTEP’s Aerospace Center. The university relieved Choudhuri of his title with the center, but he remains employed as a professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and the endowed Mr. and Mrs. MacIntosh Murchison Chair II in Engineering. UTEP hired Choudhuri in February 2001. He has served as chair of the university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and is considered an expert in defense and aerospace systems. The university has recognized him for his leadership, performance and efforts to earn millions of dollars in research grants. The university named Kenith E. Meissner II, dean of the College of Engineering, as the acting head of the Aerospace Center. UTEP also initiated a national search for the next leader of the center. Choudhuri, in a statement provided by his attorney, said that he respects the process and expects the truth to come out soon. A rendering of the Tech 1 Campus at the Fabens airport, a developing off-campus facility of UTEP’s Advanced Manufacturing and Aerospace Center. This property is at the center of concerns about a large grant from the National Science Foundation. (UTEP presentation to El Paso County Commissioners Court January 2024) Why are El Paso leaders so worried about losing the grant? Collaborators at the city, county, state and federal levels, as well as UTEP, said they want to work together to get the project back on track. The economic impact of the grant on the region could add up to $160 million. At the time the award was announced, Choudhuri and Wicker said they were confident that the Paso del Norte engine would achieve every benchmark to earn every available dollar. During a Jan. 18 El Paso County Commissioners Court meeting, Choudhuri made a presentation about the regional project, which was only a finalist at that point. County Judge Ricardo Samaniego expressed his optimism at what the selection would mean for the region’s economic development. Samaniego compared what the county’s contribution would do to benefit the Fabens area with the city of El Paso’s investment to revitalize the Downtown area. He said county leaders had the same kind of focus. The county had invested millions in local tax dollars and grants to improve the Fabens Airport to complement UTEP’s aerospace research; while the city had appropriated a few million dollars to the “Innovation Factory” near the El Paso International Airport that would be used as a factory by manufacturers. Samaniego, Mayor Oscar Leeser and U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar were critical of how UTEP President Heather Wilson handled the situation. In a letter to Wilson, the three community leaders said her actions would “jeopardize a once-in-a-generation opportunity.” However, the University of Texas System Chancellor James Milliken and its Board of Regents defended Wilson, who sits on the NSF governing board. “We are unwavering in our support of her decisions on the matter,” according to a system statement by Milliken and UT System Board of Regents Chair Kevin Eltife. [END] --- [1] Url: https://elpasomatters.org/2024/05/21/utep-nsf-aerospace-center-grant-suspended-choudhuri-el-paso/ Published and (C) by El Paso Matters.org Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 International. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/elpasomatters/