Additional Participants

Technical Staff

Ami Gaspar
Christian Wilson

Partner Organizations

University of Maine at Presque Isle
University of Maine at Augusta
University of Maine at Farmington
University of Maine at Fort Kent
University of Southern Maine
University of Maine at Machias

Project Period

September 1, 2011-August 31, 2013

Level of Access

Open-Access Report

Grant Number

4900 / 1108153

Submission Date

2-2014

Abstract

This NSF EPSCoR C2 project allowed Maine EPSCoR to continue the state’s momentum to enhance the connectivity of the state’s research, higher education, and K-12 institutions through Maine’s Research and Education Network (MaineREN). Over the last few years, multi-million dollar investments have built networking and computing power at the state level, including: 1) the installation of 1,100 miles of middle-mile fiber optic cable; 2) investments in shared computing resources for high performance computing and cloud computing; 3) the Maine School and Library Network; 4) the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (grade 6-12 laptops); and 5) investments in high-performance visualization and videoconferencing.

This C2 project allowed Maine EPSCoR to address the cyberinfrastructure gaps at the seven campuses of the University of Maine System that had still been preventing the delivery of true end-to-end connectivity between Maine’s researchers and the new advanced networking services provided over MaineREN.

The research and education focus that was enabled by this C2 project is the Maine EPSCoR Sustainability Science Initiative (SSI) Rll Track 1, with the goal of providing SSI researchers and students at the seven campuses of the University of Maine System true end-to-end connectivity. Cyberinfrastructure is an important key to helping SSI to advance their sustainability science objectives to: 1) examine interactions between social and ecological systems (SES) as landscapes change in response to urbanization, forest management, and climate variability; 2) investigate how such SES knowledge affects, and is influenced by, the actions and decisions of diverse stakeholders, with a goal of strengthening connections between knowledge and action; 3) evaluate the factors that facilitate and impede interdisciplinary collaboration, with a goal of identifying and implementing individual and institutional best practices that are needed to support successful interdisciplinary research programs in sustainability science.

In particular, the C2 connectivity improvements that are now in place will support the Track 1 SSI research agenda by addressing various data management, visualization, and virtual proximity challenges that were present.

Except for a small amount of support towards the AAAS review, all of the C2 budget was allocated for the capital cyberinfrastructure improvements, with the goal of enabling the effectiveness of the research and education activities of the SSI Track 1 project. This then means that there is a high degree of leveraging and synergy between the two projects, and that the personnel participation, research, diversity, and workforce development activities were supported from a variety of other sources including SSI Track 1, state funds, university funds, and UMaine System funds (and therefore are not a direct part of this award). While somewhat confusing for reporting purposes, this high degree of leveraging resulted in a tightly integrated and effective manner of furthering Maine’s research and education capacity in Sustainability Science. The implementation and administration of all three NSF EPSCoR projects (Track 1, 2, C2) has been through the Maine EPSCoR office at the University of Maine, which allowed for effective coordination and leveraging of resources and investments for the maximum benefit to Maine researchers.

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Manuscript Number

MS584_2014_ECK_MaineEPSCoR

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