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 completed.

Most important details first: Coates said the Leahy Institute began distributing funds after a five-year, roughly $14,000,000 federal grant and is running a two-round grant program; the office disbursed 13 grants in its first round and has 16 projects under the second round. Grants range from capacity awards of about $10,000 to larger awards (Coates cited $250,000 as an example) that fund multi‑partner projects.

Coates described several ongoing projects. A pilot with the College of Medicine and the state library association is assessing whether rural public libraries can host telemedicine appointments. A mapping project — led by UVM’s spatial analysis lab and college of engineering in partnership with transmission and distribution utilities including VELCO and local utilities — is analyzing Vermont’s electrical grid to identify vulnerabilities and opportunities for distributed renewable energy. The Leahy Institute is also funding wastewater infrastructure mapping and supporting the Center for Rural Studies’ evaluation work with the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development (a $250,000 grant) to review the state’s technical-assistance offerings for municipalities.

Senators asked whether UVM can provide the kinds of data the committee needs for proposed education restructuring, including student-population projections and district-level enrollment figures. Coates said the university can produce projections and related analysis; she offered to provide “something by Friday” on population trends and pointed to existing resources such as the Center for Rural Studies and the Vermont Futures materials used for demographic forecasting.

Committee members raised practical questions about how university work would tie to on-the-ground needs. Senators noted that Vermont currently has a large number of supervisory unions and school districts — figures mentioned during the discussion included about 80 supervisory unions and roughly 50 school districts — and said the committee will need district- and county-level data to assess consolidation scenarios. Coates said UVM can work with the committee but cautioned the institute works by academic semester schedules and that some research would be better suited to student projects or to longer-term faculty-led grants.

Other supports Coates described include paid internships supported by the institute, student service-learning courses, convenings such as the RISE summit (research, innovation, sustainability and entrepreneurship) and fee-for-service technical assistance from university centers, including a newly formed Water Resources Institute. She said the institute coordinates with existing state and regional partners — for example, regional planning commissions, the extension service and municipal technical-assistance programs — to avoid duplicating work.

No formal committee action was taken during the presentation. Committee members thanked Coates and signaled interest in pursuing UVM-provided data and contracted evaluation support as the study committee on county and regional governance develops requests for proposals and a plain-language report.

Coates’s remarks and the senators’ questions focused on options for research and technical support rather than binding commitments; she repeatedly framed the institute’s role as connector and facilitator rather than as a direct municipal service provider.