Gulf Coast Post-Katrina Forum

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The EPSCoR leadership in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi has joint efforts to submit a proposal for planning and implementing a two-day Gulf coast workshop aimed at developing more effective approaches to natural and human-induced disaster research. The need for the proposed workshop emerges from the experience and learning from the devastation caused by both Katrina and Rita hurricanes, including the lost of decades of research data and infrastructure. The region's long-term strategic investments in human and material resources to advance knowledge and education in the fields of science and engineering have been disrupted, damaged, and in many instances, destroyed.This proposal constitutes a tri-state collaboration (i.e., Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi) to hold a Gulf Coast forum, which will bring together regional and national experts to develop approaches to natural disaster research. The three states will work together in all stages of the planning and implementation of the pursued forum through a tri-state strategic planning committee. The forum will serve to widen the scope of the previously held forum in Louisiana and advance by further refining and focusing on specific opportunities for revitalizing and re-establishing the pre-disaster scientific research trajectories of the affected states. Thus, the main purpose of the forum is to establish a path towards developing successful, high-impact, and sustainable research supporting the Gulf coast by bringing together key participants and encouraging broader collaboration from diverse disciplines and research interests.