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US Virgin Islands EPSCoR External Advisory Board Report December 2021 December 2021 ii Table of Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................. 1 Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 1 1.0 Project Area Specific Comments and Recommendations ......................................................... 2 1.1 Administration ....................................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Research Foci .......................................................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Workforce Development .................................................................................................................... 6 1.4 STEM Institute Sustainability Plan ................................................................................................ 9 1.5 Cyberinfrastructure & Data Management ................................................................................... 9 1.6 Outreach, Education, Diversity & Communication ............................................................... 11 2.0 Summary and Conclusions ................................................................................................................. 12 December 2021 1 Introduction The External Advisory Board (EAB) for the US Virgin Islands EPSCoR project virtually attended the project's Annual Meeting on Friday July 16, and met again (virtually) with the project's leadership team on August 5 2021. In attendance were Elizabeth Gladfelter, Karl Benedict (Chair of Board), Lauren Mullineaux, Leonard Nurse, Mark Boardman, Marta Collier-Youngblood, Luana Lewis and Cecil Jennings. This report reflects input from all attending EAB members with the development of the content of each section led by one or more Board members with input from the rest of the EAB. Despite the challenges inherent in hosting a virtual meeting, the 2021 VI EPSCoR Conference was an unqualified success that demonstrated the program’s steady progress and maturity from modest, but ambitious beginnings almost 2 decades ago. Some programmatic areas (e.g., ecosystem function and autecological research) have always been strong, but historically the disparity in efficacy and productivity between the strong areas and others (e.g., workforce development) was glaring. Very few, if any, such disparities were observed during the 2021 conference. We acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the entire EPSCoR team, past and present, whose tireless efforts over many grant cycles built the very solid foundation on which the current program successes (outlined below) are built. We are optimistic about the program’s continued growth and productivity as it systematically meets objectives that together advance the program to its original goal of scientific capacity building and workforce development in the Territory. Executive Summary Key Observations on Strengths and Improvements The members of the External Advisory Board are impressed with the work accomplished during the first project year: building on the momentum of existing research activities, initiating new research foci, development of new research proposals, establishing an awareness of research activities across the project, enabling integration when appropriate, establishing extensive and productive external collaborations, high-impact workforce development efforts, and greatly expanded community engagement and outreach activities. While all of these accomplishments are the product of the hard work of the respective teams within the larger project, their coordinated work and increased cross-activity production is also a testament to the excellence of the project leadership and its ability to encourage and build connections across the project activities. Key Recommendations ◼ Continue to examine models for returning some meaningful proportion of generated F&A to the programs/researchers who generate it in support of further capacity building for their activities ◼ Begin work towards sustainability of initiatives now - especially through ⚫ Increased outreach and connectivity with government initiatives/agencies ⚫ Formalize and measure the mentoring and support efforts for early career faculty, postdocs and graduate students December 2021 2 ◼ Increase the impact of the program and position it for future NSF requirements for tracking and reporting shared data products through an explicit plan for transitioning project data into appropriate repositories for long-term discovery, access, preservation, and citation. ◼ Adopt some form of scorecard system to make clear where Workforce and Outreach goals and outcomes are when reporting out to key stakeholders. Base this on the baselines set at the start of the project and the measurable progress towards the goals you set for the 5-years of R2R. ◼ Clarification is needed on whether Science 100-Service Learning is now being grouped with the other “Emerging Areas” and how is this area being assessed/evaluated within the R2R program. 1.0 Project Area Specific Comments and Recommendations 1.1 Administration UVI administrative support of the EPSCoR program seems to have improved substantially over the past two years as indicated by comments from the leadership team in the EAB's call with the team on August 5. This is a testament to the program's core leadership and success in working with the university administration to successfully address issues related to proposal development and submission, budget development and awards administration, and payment of accounts payable in a timely manner. With that having been said, there remain some areas which would benefit from continuing attention. Specifically, ● The reconstruction of the research and teaching spaces at UVI and VIERS need continued focus so that they can return to full functional capacity as they are critical to maintaining UVI as a center of research in the Caribbean. This includes replacement of environmental analysis and GIS labs (if needed) and clarification of the status of the partnership with the NPS in reference to VIERS. ● In previous EPSCoR funding cycles the EAB had made recommendations related to tenure for research faculty to increase retention of faculty recruited through the EPSCoR program. While progress has been made with the implementation of longer-term contracts for research faculty, the EAB would like to learn more from the program about any faculty retention strategies (including or not including tenure) that have been implemented or are under development. ● Continue to build the integration with St. Croix, particularly through building research capacity for increased research activities on St. Croix beyond the current research faculty who have limited capacity to maintain research programs that extend to St. Croix. December 2021 3 ● A continuing area of concern is the current model in which no generated F&A is being returned to the programs that generate it in support of their continued capacity building. Return of some proportion of generated F&A is a common model at other research institutions and it provides an increased incentive for faculty to develop new funded research projects and provides seed funds to support research productivity beyond the direct funds obtained through grants. 1.2 Research Foci 01 Watershed Monitoring and Land Use (Mr. David Hensley) Understanding the effects of the watersheds on land use is critical to making successful decisions regarding sustainability of coastal habitats - especially reef ecosystems, and we strongly support this component of the Ridge-to-Reef grants. The outline of the research is very good including its methods, timeline, and goals. The lead researcher for the watershed portion of the grant is Mr. David Hensley, an agricultural research scientist with the St. Croix UVI’s Agricultural Experiment Station in the School of Agriculture on St. Croix. Mr. Hensley is concurrently a Ph.D. candidate at Auburn University. Mr. Hensley is new to research management, in sharp contrast to the lead researchers in other areas of the VI-EPSCoR project, who have had years and decades of successful research management experience. Thus, it should come as no surprise that this limitation generates concern about the success of the Watershed portion of the project. The team working with resilience, adaptation, and other aspects of coral reef habitats has worked together for years; whereas, the watershed and land-use research effort would not benefit from comparable sustained collaborations. Our concerns were shared with the research and administration leadership of VI- EPSCoR. We are pleased that they recognized the need for more oversight and mentorship. The EAB welcomes the decision of the team to plan and execute deliberate, overt, and intensive collaboration efforts to ensure that the watershed portion of the grant succeeds. In particular, we commend the commitment of Dr. Richard Nemeth who will be working closely with Mr. Hensley, a graduate student assisting him and with his Ph.D. advisors. Dr. Nemeth has previous research (and publication) expertise in terrestrial influences on coral reef ecology in the Virgin Islands, and we are confident that he is very well qualified to be an on-site professional colleague and collaborator. Drs. Mark Boardman, Leonard Nurse, and Elizabeth Gladfelter will be the principal liaison from the EAB. Dr. Boardman will continue direct contact with Mr. Hensley. 02 Mangrove Function, Recovery, Restoration (Dr. Kristin Wilson Grimes) December 2021 4 This project is developing into an independent, vibrant basic research effort. The recovery and restoration focus is straightforward and timely. Importantly, the research project serves as a direct bridge to efforts in citizen science and outreach. Dr. Wilson Grimes’ strengths lay in trans-disciplinary research: i.e., coupling the basic science with STEM Learning and research and integration with social science research. Her activities complement those of other coastal researchers in the program and provide her colleagues a conduit for investigating broader linkages and impacts. The leadership in the SEAS Island Alliance (with Marilyn Brandt) is particularly noteworthy. The topics in this research arena are accessible to students at a range of levels, and we believe the potential exists for input and collaboration with the Science 100 project. 03 Emerging Areas of Research There are several research areas that focus on the seagrass ecosystem, including impacts to that system due to the invasive seagrass species Halophila stipulacea. ◼ Seagrass Ecology & Sargassum (Dr. Edwin Cruz Rivera): This research focuses on diversity, both the effect of the invasive seagrass (Halophila stipulacea) on the structure and function of the seagrass ecosystem, as well as genetic diversity of the seagrass species. These studies are directly relevant to ongoing work on fish recruitment as well as turtle research. ◼ Movement Behavior of Mega-Fauna Seagrass Grazers (Dr. Paul Jobsis): The turtle ecology research is very engaging. It easily connects to the public at large, as well having great integration with student research. This research continues to have great potential to contribute to STEM education endeavours as well as outreach. It continues to make good use of the tagging program established a few years ago in Brewer’s Bay. This research program is especially impressive given all Dr. Jobsis’s successful efforts in administration and considerable success in facilities management. ◼ Effect of Seagrass on Beach Dynamics (Dr. Greg Guannel): This research can provide a key link between land, coastal processes, and ocean processes by assessing the spatial extent of the seagrass system and its composition, as well as its impact on sediment accretion and stability under different energy regimes. We understand this work will explore the physics of the role of seagrass systems in stabilizing shorelines through wave energy attenuation, but we are still not entirely clear about: (i) the design of the field program, (ii) how the field studies/results will be used, and (iii) how this research will relate to other seagrass projects, as well as other elements of R2R. We understand that the project is still evolving and anticipate greater clarity as the component is further refined. 04 Fish Ecology (Dr. Richard Nemeth) The research plan on fish ecology for the next few years will probe critical linkages of fish productivity, adaptations, and resilience to environmental impacts, particularly those related to land-use decisions. Dr. Nemeth leads an internationally recognized research December 2021 5 program. It exemplifies excellence and maturity by sustained research productivity (publications and presentations), successful competitive funding (grants), an established and well-organized research team probing important and significant research questions (students), and collaborations with other investigators, governmental agencies, students and the community. We have no concerns about the methods being employed or the capacity of the research team to complete the R2R research goals. 05 Coral Disease and Restoration (Dr. Marilyn Brandt) Sustainability of coral reefs depends on a healthy coral community, and corals, the structurally significant component of a coral reef, are increasingly threatened by diseases and other environmental stressors. The most aggressive, pervasive, and damaging coral disease is the recently discovered SCTLD (Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease), and the research plans developed and directed by Dr. Brandt are at the forefront of efforts probing the spread of this disease. Without understanding SCTLD, successful efforts at restoration of coral reefs are significantly challenged. Dr. Brandt is internationally recognized as a leader in coral diseases as evidenced by publications, grants, presentations, committee work, etc., and her team’s blend of laboratory and field work is superbly qualified to lead efforts to understand and combat this new disease that is ravaging coral reefs. Continued collaboration with other research colleagues, government agencies, and the community all suggest that further significant contributions to understand coral diseases and restoration will emerge from this R2R research. We have no concerns about the methods being employed or the capacity of the research team to complete the R2R research goals. 06 Coral Reef Resilience (Dr. Tyler Smith) This research addresses controls of the overall recovery of coral reefs after environmental impacts. The severe stress of back-to-back Category 5 hurricanes (Maria and Irma in 2017) coupled with the severe stresses of earlier coral bleaching events provide the opportunity to evaluate reef resilience, recovery and adaptation to increasingly common natural events. The primary methodology takes advantage of years of prior monitoring of 40 transects that includes integration of chemical, physical and visual monitoring over a variety of depths. The deepest transects require a technical diving (a rare capability) that permits evaluation of potential refugia for coral species. The infrastructure, protocols, and personnel directed by Dr. Smith combine to form a world- leading capacity to study coral reef resilience. The record of publications, grants, presentations, and committee-work attest to this internationally recognized research. We have no concerns about the methods being employed or the capacity of the research team to complete the R2R research goals. 07 Oceanography (Dr. Sennai Habtes - as described in the proposal) December 2021 6 The results of the oceanographic modeling efforts (Mukherjee) are promising and show potential for integration with, and as a support to, research on fisheries, coral dispersal, and disease dispersal. But there remains a mismatch between the scales of the oceanographic model (kilometers to 100s of kilometers) and the coastal ecological studies currently underway (meters to 100s of meters). The challenge lies in how (or whether) to attempt to integrate them. The departure of lead researcher Sennai Habtes leaves gaps and opportunities in the biophysical interaction component of the project. A new junior staff member (Postdoc? Research staff?) may be able to step into the role of integrating the circulation model with dispersal or other studies. Mentoring from senior researchers for this junior hire will be essential. Without an individual in charge of a dispersal study, the oceanography component will stand alone, which is OK, but not ideal. The field observations collected as part of the Oceanography effort have the potential to integrate directly with coastal ecology efforts. This opportunity could be developed further and is worth supporting. 08 Science 100 - Service Learning Research (Michelle Guannel) The presentation of the Science 100 - Service Learning Research during the annual conference positioned it as an emerging research area. During our discussions the question arose of how this research is to be grouped and assessed within the R2R project. Metrics for emerging research can often be very different from workforce and outreach programming. The EAB would also appreciate guidance from the EPSCoR office leadership on how we can best support this area. Lastly, the EAB has observed that Drs. Grimes and Guannel have research agendas that also have strong education and social science integrations into their STEM research content areas. Perhaps these two areas would benefit from some form of collaboration to formalize the VI EPSCoR team commitment to producing cutting edge STEM Learning Research: (1) K-12 and undergraduate student learning focus; and (2) Teacher Professional Development teaching focus led by Dr. Cummings. Fully establishing UVI as a Center of Excellence in STEM Learning Research (particularly for rural and isolated communities) has the potential to add to the reputation of UVI which is already known as a top notch Marine Science Research Center within the academic community. 1.3 Workforce Development The presentation at the 2021 Conference was well put together for the Workforce Development team. It was helpful to see each of the STEM Institute’s many branches and how they are organized. Overall this portion of the project has three general areas that the EAB looks forward to seeing move forward: (1) continued action in measuring, presenting and publishing of the outcomes of all Workforce Development activities; (2) continued and expanded partnership between STEM Institute, primary research thrust faculty and emerging research faculty in creating and utilizing mentorship plans for students and postdocs; (3) continued and expanded partnerships with community stakeholders to December 2021 7 support the STEM teacher professional development goals of the territory (e.g., public/private school systems, territory governmental agencies, local businesses and nonprofits, etc.) The following feedback is structured to highlight areas that were unclear from the presentation that were identified in follow up with the STEM Institute Director and to provide recommendations for moving forward with the stated goals and objectives laid out by the VI EPSCoR team as regards Workforce Development. In future, reporting this portion of the project MUST be clear in defining the metrics of this work when addressing stakeholders. We recommend that the team highlight the key performance indicators and the progress towards the stated, measurable goals to show that you are on track for meeting those goals. The development of your own scorecard or similar device might help in this work. This portion of the project has historically been very successful at delivering programs and activities, but this work needs to show the connection between Workforce Development and Outreach activities and the strategic goals that were set forward in how effective this work has been at growing the STEM workforce in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Teacher PD via STEM Institute - The team is working to develop a strong theoretical model (Modified JEPD model that provides real time support to educators to strengthen skills and utilize reflective processes. This can include K-12 teachers as well as faculty at the higher education level.) Recommendation: This theoretical model needs to be presented at curriculum and instruction conferences in addition to applicable STEM meetings and submitted for publication so that the VI-ISERP team can be credited and cited for this work effort. PBL Certification - This is a certificate of completion. Training teachers to be practitioner researchers. Recommendation: This is a good start; however, defining what a teacher with this certification is going to be able to do will make this more meaningful. What is the measurable and tangible benefit of teachers completing this certification? Will the district tie it to some benefit? Does this certificate grant them access to more resources? Student Practicum - Partnership with local high schools where there is at least one VI- ISERP supported teacher. Collaborate with K-12 teacher and R2R researcher to co-develop lessons that are PBL rich to use with students. Recommendation: The STEM Institute should take the step of helping the participating high school students codify this experience on their resumes and the teacher’s resumes/vitas as well. Undergraduate Training Support - Faculty and students are receiving training on the Mentoring Compact (a product of the previous Mare Nostrum project). Team has digitized the tool and facilitated training with summer students to pilot the new configuration in preparation for the Fall Semester. IDP focus. Strengthening the communication network December 2021 8 between student success services and faculty in providing timely and effective assistance to struggling students. Recommendation: Mentoring Compact needs to be presented at professional meetings and published in peer reviewed and trade journals. The creation of the compact is an article in itself. Initial results is another article. Graduate (Masters) Training Support - Collaboration with the faculty mentors on PDP (professional development plans), this allows VI-ISERP another way to stay connected to the various research themes of the R2R program. PD for faculty to most effectively mentor graduate students. These faculty will offer training to their colleagues as master PD facilitators. Increasing faculty pedagogy resources. Recommendation: Seek advice from the External Evaluation team on how to best leverage the outcomes of this work. This could provide a model for NSF to consider funding to scale and replicate as a training program depending on how successful this team is at implementation strategy. This is also potentially something that VI-ISERP could propose to NSF for you to provide training on this to other EPSCoR and NSF-funded jurisdictions similar to the “Science Ninjas/Science Communication” initiative from several years back. Research Infrastructure/Mentoring Resources - Faculty Mini Grants are being offered in the amount of $2,000. Faculty may apply for two per year for years 2 thru 4 of the project. Review process is overseen by a committee of R2R researchers, VI-ISERP and the team is working on adding a community member to promote diversity (e.g., K-12 teacher with education research experience.) Recommendation: Be sure to monitor and document the impact of this micro funding on the work of the awarded faculty. These funds need to be seen as catalytic in advancing aspects of the R2R research objectives. Early Career Supports Structures (network) - building up social media presence, listserv and other quick time notifications of opportunities. Utilizing the Louis Stokes Partnership (Florida) and PEERs (Rhode Island) to connect advanced students and faculty to proposal and career development resources throughout the year. Does PEERs provide help with teachers who apply to PAEMST, Tobisha, etc? Working to increase the number of funding opportunities that teachers can connect to by exploring more private foundation options. Recommendation: Micro funding is a useful tool to provide to researchers to support the research. Are mentoring plans/assistance being provided to ALL participants who supervise project participants? Who is making sure that all mandatory postdoc mentoring plans are done and followed? Recommendation: Mentoring and Practice for Research Development and Research Methods “Seminar Series” - Workshops that STEM Institute can support for project participants (Faculty Session and separate undergraduate and graduate student session). This could be VERY helpful in providing resources to the faculty who are engaging in newer December 2021 9 and emerging areas of research within the VI EPSCoR group such as the Service Learning thrust, as well as other faculty on campus who are engaging in research projects as PIs or collaborators. 1.4 STEM Institute Sustainability Plan The EAB was glad to hear that there has been progress on submitting proposals aimed at strengthening the long-term stability of the STEM Institute and its work. Major submissions and planned submissions shared by the director included: ◼ NSF - AISL - Advancing Informal Science Learning (Nov 2020) - $296,000 ◼ NSF - TIP - Collaborative Proposal with two institutional partners for Maker Spaces in High Schools (one per island) - $1,000,000 ($300,000/per) ◼ NSF - HRD Race and Equity Funding - Collaborative Maker Space and Teacher Support - $1.2M ◼ Jones Foundation - COVID Teacher Support (equipment and WiFi access) - $13,000 The EAB applauds these efforts and knowing the time commitment required in mounting these types of proposals, we make the following recommendations: Recommendation: Explore ways of leveraging collaborative proposals with UVI’s existing partnership networks such as the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation - Florida as a key strategic partnership. There may be possible Co-PIs and senior personnel and proposal development resources that could be shared/leveraged within these types of consortia that would lessen the time and effort burden on VI-ISERP staff to mount large funding proposals on their own. Recommendation: Explore additional ways that VI-ISERP can become more of a revenue generating entity by charging for needed services (e.g., certified trainings/workshops, speaker bureau, etc. based on the Institute’s pool of expertise). STEM Institute should have a business plan aimed at some form of profit model that does not fully rely on grantsmanship. 1.5 Cyberinfrastructure & Data Management The project data management plan includes a significant, and necessary investment in cyberinfrastructure in support of efficient, scalable, and resilient access to increased network capacity between the St. Croix and St. Thomas campuses, connectivity to individual research buildings, and connectivity within buildings; while also planning for both cloud-based and on premise computing and storage capacity in support of the project's research activities. This plan reflects the necessary realities of being able to maintain continuity of operations in the face of likely damage and destruction of research CI components, and disruptions of network connectivity between the territory and global resources, between the participating campuses, and ultimately between the project's researchers, the members of their teams, and the computational and data storage resources upon which they depend. December 2021 10 Based upon communications with the project's Assistant Director the project is making good progress on its work on developing both shared research data storage capacity and in deploying proposed network infrastructure - with both activities continuing at this time. While the submitted DMP provides a good description of the planned CI capabilities to be developed and the planned within-project data management activities and capabilities, the plan for meeting NSF's Data Sharing Policy (Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) Chapter XI.D.4) remains at a high level and should be developed in more detail. In particular ,a specific and actionable plan related to PAPPG Chapter II.C.2.j), data management, documentation, preservation and sharing should be developed that is aligned with current practice: (annotations to the PAPPG Chapter II.C.2.j data management plan components are provided in italics) ◼ The types of data, samples, physical collections, software, curriculum materials, and other materials to be produced in the course of the project; establishment of an inventory of data products and their types that provides the baseline for tracking success in transitioning these products into appropriate systems for long-term preservation, discovery, access, reuse and citation. ◼ The standards to be used for data and metadata format and content (where existing standards are absent or deemed inadequate, this should be documented along with any proposed solutions or remedies); Existing standards should be used when they exist (e.g. ISO 19115-1 metadata for geospatial data), otherwise describe the proposed documentation content, and develop appropriate template(s) to streamline the capture and sharing of data and software documentation. ◼ Policies for access and sharing including provisions for appropriate protection of privacy, confidentiality, security, intellectual property, or other rights or requirements; These typically begin with a default position of public access to all data products, except those for which there are privacy, pending patent, or confidentiality restrictions that must be addressed. This is also where a reasonable embargo period for exclusive use by data creators is defined, (increasingly less than 1 year) after which data are expected to be publicly available. ◼ Policies and provisions for re-use, re-distribution, and the production of derivatives; this entails the definition of the license terms under which data and software products are shared. The standard expectation is that these items will be share with minimal restrictions through such licenses as the Creative Commons Attribution or Public Domain licenses for data, and an approved Open Source license (such as Apache 2) for software, and ◼ Plans for archiving data, samples, and other research products, and for preservation of access to them. This is now expected to be accomplished through deposit of data and associated metadata into a repository that is specifically managed to support long-term preservation, discovery, access, and citation through persistent identifiers such as DOIs. This requirement typically excludes project web sites or online resources as they are necessarily tied to the duration of an award. It typically does December 2021 11 include disciplinary (e.g. SeaDataNet, NODC), general purpose repositories (e.g. Dryad, Zenodo), or institutional repositories that are managed to meet these requirements. On November 22, 2021 NSF announced the release of version 2.0 of the NSF Public Access Repository (PAR) to support reporting of project data products as a complement to the system's previous registration method for project publications. Use of the dataset registration capabilities of PAR remains voluntary through the planned 2022 pilot period for the system and as stated by NSF "There are no changes at this time to NSF’s Public Access policy or project reporting requirements." (emphasis added) The coming year would be an important time to develop and start to implement a plan for transitioning project data into repositories that will support long-term preservation, discovery, access and citation. Given that NSF's new system depends upon the assignment of a Datacite DOI to reported datasets, DOI provision is a specific requirement that selected repositories should support. 1.6 Outreach, Education, Diversity & Communication The print and electronic publications coming out of the communications office continue to be impressive and well put together. The following are suggestions for how the team may be able to increase capacity for growing the effectiveness of the communications plan. Recommendation: Provide opportunities to student research assistants to master effective science communication tools (e.g., CANVA, Video Production, iMovie, HootSuite, ISSUU Recommendation: Include applicable NSF Award number(s) at the bottom of print and electronic publications including the website. (e.g., “This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation Award #.......”. Recommendation: Hire student interns who can help increase informal learning video content for dissemination. Make use of videos to add more regular social media posts and raise the App and Site analytics. Masterclass Classes: Stand up a dedicated YouTube Channel where you can provide free and for a fee masterclasses related to STEM Teaching and Outreach. Need to get video releases from people who are on video. This could lead to a solid revenue stream for VI- ISERP to support the work of the Institute. Tools you would need include: ◼ Vimeo Account ◼ YouTube Account ◼ Epidemic Sound (royalty free music) ◼ Canva and iMovie for Thumbnail creation and simple video editing Publications: The EAB was pleased to hear that there are two publications scheduled to be out in December on CRP Theory and a third one set for the Spring related to research on teacher resilience post hurricane and amidst COVID-19. The EAB looks forward to hearing more progress on the products/services that are being developed under the Outreach portion of the R2R project. The work that was reported December 2021 12 during the annual conference seems to be prime for the development of commercial educational products that could provide resources to help sustain and grow various aspects of outreach in the future. Where are the gaps/barriers to getting this done? How are the outreach products lining up with NSF’s expectations for Broader Impacts and Inclusion? How are outreach’s key partnerships going? Are there some that they need help with growing and sustaining such as the Territory Department of Education or the Education Committee for the Legislature? 2.0 Summary and Conclusions Overall, the EAB is very impressed with the work that has been accomplished by the project in its first year of the current award. While there was significant momentum carried into the project for some of the core research topics, the new emerging science foci, the workforce development, and outreach, education, diversity and communication areas demonstrate significant improvements over their corresponding activities in previous funding cycles. The cyberinfrastructure and data management component continues to maintain an appropriate and significant focus on building out more capable and resilient network and data storage capacity in support of the project. While there are specific recommendations for each activity area provided within this report, a high-level theme across the recommendations is one of clarifying goals and objectives for some activities, establishing baseline conditions against which progress can be measured, and continuing to identify and build connections across project activities. Congratulations to the entire project team for a highly productive first project year and the EAB looks forward to our continued work in support of the project's continued success.