IMUA 2: NSF Hawaii EPSCoR

夏威夷EPSCoR研究基础设施改善奖将建立在第一个EPSCoR RII计划的成功基础上，以推进生态学，进化和网络基础设施方面的具体研究机会，这些研究机会对国家和UH系统具有高度优先地位。具体而言，夏威夷的2005年RII计划提出了一个研究议程，促进负责任地管理夏威夷的生态系统，同时使其人民能够承担他们的角色，作为技术知识，批判性思维的公民在21世纪世纪的劳动力。在与商业，经济发展旅游（DBEDT）的国家部的伙伴关系，UH将利用IMUA II，以促进州长林格尔所强调的“环境责任的机会，成为一个经济力量”的国家。 该奖项的总主题是“岛屿生态学、进化和网络基础设施的研究合作”。夏威夷群岛以进化和物种形成研究的理想环境而闻名，并为调查物种形成和适应不同自然和改变的栖息地的生态和遗传因素提供了一个特殊的天然实验室。此外，由于主要岛屿的地质演化有很好的记录，因此有可能根据已知的地质事件准确地确定遗传分歧的时间。地球上没有其他地方可以如此容易或全面地做到这一点。在不同的尺度上，了解生态系统的功能，物种之间的相互作用，以及陆地，水生和海洋系统之间的联系，在完整的和改变的生态系统是至关重要的维持长期健康的夏威夷的环境。夏威夷为陆地、水生和海洋系统在多个干扰和人类活动水平上的比较生态学研究提供了前所未有的机会。该奖项将在第一个RII奖项的基础上扩大，将网络基础设施和环境传感器技术与进化遗传学和生态系统研究相结合。 来自夏威夷大学、大陆大学和夏威夷商业领袖的科学家将建立区域伙伴关系，发展基础设施和适当的研究方案，从分析不同生境和夏威夷群岛的进化和生态过程，到入侵物种和城乡环境生态和环境扰动的多学科问题。 其他合作伙伴关系将与国家卓越中心（国家生态分析和综合中心，国家进化综合中心和嵌入式网络传感中心）发展。 网络基础设施重点领域将开发一个创新的环境研究和教育网络，作为EPSCoR计划的集成商。 这是基于a）无线传感器网络和交互式数据系统存储库的环境监测，和2）夏威夷社会生态系统的研究网站和合作。 网络基础设施项目将与InteleSense技术公司、斯坦福大学的国家生物计算中心、毛伊岛高性能计算中心和加州大学洛杉矶分校的嵌入式网络传感器中心合作。从种族、文化、语言和社会经济的角度来看，夏威夷的人口基础是全国最多样化的。 该奖项制定了一项计划，该计划建立在当前RII奖下实施的最有前途的招聘和保留活动的基础上，以开发结构化的跨学科课程，作为将跨学科环境研究融入课程的手段，并提高STEM学生的表现，特别是对于代表性不足的群体。 一个主要的目标是通过使社区学院的教师成为研究团队的成员，并促进将研究项目纳入社区学院的课程，从而将社区学院纳入该项目。

The Hawaii EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement award will build on the success of the first EPSCoR RII program to advance specific research opportunities in ecology, evolution and Cyberinfrastructure that are of high priority to the State and the UH System. Specifically, Hawaii's 2005 RII Plan presents a research agenda that promotes responsible stewardship of Hawaii's ecosystems while enabling its people to assume their roles as technologically literate, critically thinking citizens in a 21st century workforce. In partnership with the State Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT), UH will leverage IMUA II to promote what Governor Lingle has emphasized as an "opportunity for environmental responsibility to be an economic force" for the State. The overarching theme of this award is "Research Collaborations in Island Ecology, Evolution and Cyberinfrastructure".The Hawaiian Islands are renowned as ideal settings for evolution and speciation studies and provides an exceptional natural laboratory for investigating the ecological and genetic factors underlying speciation and adaptation to diverse natural and altered habitats. Moreover, becausethe geological evolution of the main islands is well documented, is possible to accurately date genetic divergence times with known geologic events. There is no other place on earth where this can be done as easily or comprehensively. On a different scale, understanding the functioning of ecosystems, interactions of species within them, and the links among terrestrial, aquatic, and marine systems in both intact and altered ecosystems is critical for sustaining the long-term health of Hawaii's environment. Hawaii offers unprecedented opportunities for comparative ecological studies in terrestrial, aquatic, and marine systems at many levels of disturbance and human activities.This award will expand on the base created by the first RII award by combining Cyberinfrastructure and environmental sensor technology with evolutionary genetics and ecosystem research. Regional partnerships of scientists from Hawaii universities, mainland universities and business leaders in Hawaii will develop infrastructure and appropriate research programs ranging from analyses of evolutionary and ecological processes in diverse habitats and across the Hawaiian archipelago to the multidisciplinary problems of invasive species and ecological and environmental perturbations on urban and rural environments. Other partnerships will be developed with national centers of excellence (National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center and the Center for Embedded Networked Sensoring). The Cyberinfrastructure focus area will develop an innovative network for environmental research and education that serves as an integrator of the EPSCoR program. This is based on a) wireless sensor networks and interactive data systems & repositories for environmental monitoring, and 2) Hawaiian socioecological systems research sites and collaboration. The Cyberinfrastructure program will collaborate with InteleSense Technologies, the National Biocomputation Center at Stanford University, the Maui High Performance Computing Center, and UCLA's Center for Embedded Networked Sensors.From an ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic perspective, Hawaii's population base is among the most diverse in the nation. The award develops a program that builds on the most promising recruitment and retention activities implemented under the current RII award to develop structured interdisciplinary courses as a means of integrating interdisciplinary environmentally-focused research into the curriculum and to increase STEM student performance, especially for underrepresented groups. A major goal is to embrace the community colleges in the program by making community college faculty members of the research teams and to facilitate incorporation of research programs into the community college curricula.