Who We Are
The Northeastern States Research Cooperative (NSRC) is a competitive grant program supporting cross-disciplinary, collaborative research in the Northern Forest—a 26-million-acre working landscape that is home to more than two million residents and spans from eastern Maine to New Hampshire, Vermont, and northern New York. NSRC addresses the importance of the Northern Forest to society and the need for collaboration between people who live within its boundaries, work with its resources, use its products, visit it, and care for and about it. An Executive Committee governs the NSRC collaboratively. Four state institutional directors and one regional director are responsible for finalizing the roster of research projects for funding. The listing of directors and managers can be found on the Contacts page.
The NSRC funds research with clear links to application and use by stakeholders and decision-makers in the Northern Forest region.
Mission
History
The NSRC supports cross-disciplinary, collaborative research in the Northern Forest. Broad research goals are stipulated in the NSRC congressional authorization. A central component of the program is the importance of the Northern Forest to society and the need for research activities to have relevance and benefit to “the people who live within its boundaries, work with its resources, use its products, visit it, and care about it.”
The history of the Northeastern States Research Cooperative traces back more than two decades. In the 1980s, the unique Northern Forest region was elevated as a priority for national protection when concerns arose about the loss of remaining forest land and timber due to unplanned fragmentation and real estate speculation.
At the time, the governors of Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and New York turned to the region’s congressional delegations to formally create the Northern Forest Lands Council (NFLC) in order to address these land-use change and community concerns. In 1994, the NFLC published Finding Common Ground: Conserving the Northern Forest (PDF), which, among other priorities, called for the formation of a four-state research cooperative to develop a better understanding of the region’s social, economic, and environmental challenges. The congressional authorization for the Northeastern States Research Cooperative was passed as part of Public Law 105-185.
Following a pause in the program from 2018–2019, the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation (HBRF) worked with the NSRC team to revive the program and establish a process to prioritize real-world needs of forest practitioners. HBRF was also honored to work with Tribal consultants and NSRC launch the Indigenous Forest Knowledge Fund (IFKF).
Governance
Governance Documents
- NSRC 2023 Memorandum of Agreement (PDF). The MOA describes the agreement between the NSRC, the USFS, and the University of Vermont.
- NSRC 2023 Operational Guidelines (PDF). This document describes governance and operational principles for the NSRC.
- NSRC Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Statement (PDF). This document describes the roles, processes, and guidelines designed to ensure a fair and transparent research competition process and to protect the confidentiality of research proposal contents and reviewer identities.
Executive Committee
An Executive Committee governs the NSRC collaboratively. Four state institutional directors and one regional director are responsible for finalizing the roster of research projects for funding. The listing of directors and managers can be found on the Contacts page.
External Advisory Committee
The NSRC External Advisory Committee (EAC) is composed of up to 17 members identified as representative of the communities, businesses, industries, and agencies in the Northern Forest Region that contribute to and benefit from knowledge generated by research funded via the NSRC. The members of the EAC collectively represent the perspectives of all four collaborator states. The primary role of the EAC is to advise the NSRC Executive Committee about the specific research needs for each annual request for proposals (RFP). In 2020, the NSRC invited Tribal consultants to comment on research-related priorities of Tribal Nations and communities of Indigenous Peoples in the Northern Forest. In 2021, Tribal consultants participated on the EAC.