Collaborative Research: EPIIC: Cultivating Innovation and Research Capacity for Life Sustaining Emerging Technologies (CIRCLET)

This is a collaborative project between the following institutions: Hawaii Community College, College of Southern Nevada, and Northern Marianas College. While growing partnerships is a crucial aspect higher education research and development efforts, the collaborating institutions have experienced numerous situations where informal partnerships are developed only to be compromised by inactivity, lack of proper communications and management to sustain long term relationships. The collaborating institutions are committed to establish stronger partnerships by developing opportunities with stakeholders in AgTech, Agroforestry and Environmental Science for the development of skilled workforce and improve the economic health of their respective regions. The collaborating institutions will develop formalized and sustainable partnerships via agreements and the direct participation of partners within their respective institutions; provide dedicated staffing to ensure meaningful engagement with partners by setting regular meetings and short-term and long-term goals that ensures meaningful relationships and tangible outcomes; and ensure proper tracking of partnership projects via development of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications that ensure relationships and projects between partnerships are properly tracked and recorded. 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.