By Eric Skipper
Since 2020, the University of South Carolina Beaufort has more than quadrupled externally sponsored funding, a testament to the talent and resourcefulness of its faculty and staff. Awards received during fiscal year 2023 respond to educational needs and other regional challenges the university is meeting head-on with the strength of its intellectual capital.
On a per capita basis, external funding at USCB outpaces that of many institutions classified as “high research,” or R2 designation in the Carnegie classification.
In September 2022, USCB’s Public Health program was awarded $1.5 million by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to provide students scholarships. In October 2022, USCB was announced as recipient of a $5.1 million Department of Education (ED) grant aimed at recruiting and retaining high-quality teacher candidates to serve Beaufort County School District’s (BCSD) high-need schools.
In April, USCB was awarded $1 million in HRSA funding to enhance healthcare workforce development in partnership with Beaufort Memorial Hospital, Beaufort County, and the City of Beaufort. Through grants from the Town of Hilton Head Island and the Town of Bluffton, USCB’s Center for Event Management and Hospitality Training continues to provide Island Ambassador training annually to hundreds of members of our local workforce.
Thanks to area donors, USCB offers a Summer Math Camp for rising junior and senior high school students from nearby underserved counties. In the fall, USCB was awarded a grant through the Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries (PASCAL) consortium to make textbooks and other educational resources more affordable for our students.
In addition to educational projects, USCB focuses on regional problem solving, in alignment with the American Association of State College and University’s (AASCU) call for regional universities to be “Stewards of Places.”
In May, USCB received a $1 million planning grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for maritime cybersecurity. The grant positions USCB and its partners to apply for up to $160 million to cultivate a regional ecosystem for workforce and research development related to maritime cybersecurity. The NSF grant follows a $1.3 million DOD-funded grant for enhancing cybersecurity education in the region.
Active federal grants also include a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant for sustaining Gullah/Geechee agriculture, an NSF grant for materials assembly and design, a Department of Transportation (DOT)-partnered grant for monitoring the environmental impact of noise levels emitted by ocean vessels, a pair of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-partnered grants to promote estuarine health and sustainability, and a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) stipend for a project studying 19th-century women reformers in the Sea Islands.
Other projects are funded by regional and state donors such as the Port Royal Sound Foundation, the Community Foundation of the Lowcountry, the Stewart Family Office, the S.C. Arts Commission, the USCB Education Foundation, private donors, Beaufort County, and the municipalities of Hilton Head Island, Bluffton, and Beaufort. These projects support educational endeavors, water quality, the health of our intracoastal waterways, cybersecurity, and others.
As part of the USC system, USCB faculty are eligible to apply for grants to support, in addition to their own research, student research projects. USCB faculty are prolific in mentoring undergraduate and graduate researchers. It is one of many ways faculty engage students in experiential learning — or learning by doing — a hallmark of the USCB educational experience.
Moving forward, USCB is designing a water-themed Innovation Center that will focus on topics critical to regional vitality such as ecological studies, sustainability, and maritime cybersecurity. These efforts will be aided by the state’s commitment to supporting research and educational opportunities at Pritchards Island. Other projects in queue would support growth of USCB’s Nursing program and enhance STEM education opportunities.
USCB continues to elevate its impact on education and quality of life in the Lowcountry. The work would not be possible without the shared vision and support of partners across the Lowcountry and beyond.
Eric Skipper, Ph.D., is provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at University of South Carolina Beaufort.
