Conference: GRANTED Initiative Collaborative Planning WORKSHOP: Convening to Explore Research Enterprise Solutions for Academic Institutions in Insular or Remote Areas

The University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) and partner institutions, the University of Hawai’i-Hilo, University of Alaska-Fairbanks, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, and University of Guam, join in this common endeavor to reveal and propose solutions for the challenges facing remote and insular universities for conducting and broadening participation in research. This project will seed partnerships and solutions to challenges such as geographic isolation and retaining and cultivating diverse STEM talent that are focused on sustaining the research support systems needed to advance these institutions’ unique research and innovation potential. UVI and its partners will convene a series of meetings to propose innovative solutions to overcoming barriers and propose novel ways to develop talent and cultivate innovative ideas from faculty, staff and students. The identification of scalable solutions, through focused discussion among peers, can assist emerging and developing research universities (E&DRI’s) at the edges of the U.S. Research and Innovation Ecosystem, to overcome challenges of geographic distance, financial limits, and limited human capital dedicated to research support. Each of the partners is a designated Minority-Serving Institution, and has unique and indigenous talent. This collaborative effort is well positioned to reveal strategies leading to the inclusion of a portion of the “missing millions” located in geographically isolated regions. Doing so will strengthen the U.S. Science & Technology enterprise. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.