UVM’s Leahy Institute outlines research grants, offers help on school-district planning and rural infrastructure

Tricia Coates, director of the University of Vermont Office of Engagement and the Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships, told the Senate Committee on Government Operations on Feb. 12 that the institute provides grants and technical research support to Vermont communities and offered to deliver population projections and other data to assist the committee’s work on regional governance and school-district planning.

Coates said the Leahy Institute — funded by a USDA grant — operates a competitive program that has issued small capacity awards and larger project grants to municipal and regional partners. “We are UVM’s front door,” she said, describing the office’s role in connecting state and local partners to university faculty, students and technical labs.

Why it matters: The institute’s work can supply research, mapping and public-opinion work legislators said they need for complex, multi-year changes such as proposed school-district consolidation and regional governance reform. Senators pressed Coates for population projections, district-level student counts and examples of applied projects the university has…