FSML: Improvement in Facilities, Site Access and Data Management at Mpala Research Centre. Kenya.

该合同为Mpala研究中心（MRC）的改进提供了部分支持，该中心将改善现场访问和安全性。这些改进包括改善了进入最常光顾的景观区域的通道和安全性，即由美国国家科学基金会资助的大规模围合实验，以及营地，为大量学习课程的学生提供住宿，并越来越多地为参加研究和保护主题研讨会的代表提供住宿。它还将为研究站的车辆提供有遮蔽的停车场，并加强雨水收集。购买的设备将加强环境监测数据的存档和检索，并提供22 000公顷MRC财产和邻近生境的最新卫星图像清单。湄公河委员会位于埃瓦索生态系统的核心，这是一个巨大而多样的稀树草原，维持着惊人的野生动物种群，其中大部分没有得到正式保护。该中心由信托机构管理，受托人包括普林斯顿大学、史密森学会、肯尼亚国家博物馆和肯尼亚野生动物管理局。MRC的工作推进了环境、生物和保护科学的研究，并通过将课堂学习与实际现场经验相结合来教育下一代环境科学家。居住和科学设施可供多达36名科学家和学生使用，包括用于基本DNA分析的实验室。在过去的12年中，在MRC进行了50多个项目，其中包括7个国家科学基金会资助的项目，目前正在进行中，另外8个国家科学基金会支持的项目在过去的5年中已经完成。由于MRC已经成为肯尼亚科学家研究和教育的中心，包括所有年级和大学水平的学生，以及为政府机构工作的非传统学生，这些改进将继续管理该中心的四个受托人组织的努力，以提高全球下一代科学领袖的能力。

This award provides partial support for improvements to the Mpala Research Centre (MRC) that will improve site access and safety. The enhancements include improved access to and safety within the most frequented parts of the landscape, namely, the large-scale exclosure experiments funded by NSF, and the campsite, which provides accommodation for large groups of students on courses, and increasingly, for delegates to workshops with research and conservation themes. It will also provide for sheltered parking for station research vehicles and enhanced rain water collection. Equipment to be purchased will provide enhanced archiving and retrieval of environmental monitoring data, and an updated inventory of satellite imagery of the 22,000 hectare MRC property and of neighboring habitats. The MRC lies at the core of the Ewaso ecosystem, a vast and diverse savanna maintaining prodigious wildlife populations, much of it not formally protected. The Centre is administered as a Trust, in partnership with Trustees that include Princeton University, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museums of Kenya and the Kenya Wildlife service. Work at the MRC advances research in the environmental, biological, and conservation sciences, and also educates the next generation of environmental scientists by melding classroom learning with practical field experiences. Residential and scientific facilities are available for up to thirty-six scientists and students, including labs equipped for basic DNA analysis. In the last 12 years, more than fifty projects have been conducted at the MRC, including seven NSF funded projects currently underway, and another eight NSF supported projects that have been completed during the last five years. Because MRC has become central to the research and education of Kenyan scientists, including students of all grades and university levels and, as well, non-traditional students who work for governmental agencies, the improvements will continue the efforts of the four trustee organizations that manage the Center to enhance the capabilities of the next generation of scientific leaders world wide.