Western Consortium of Idaho, Nevada and New Mexico

Call for Tri-State Innovation Working Group (IWG) Proposals

The Western Tri-State Consortium significantly increases opportunities for scientific collaboration, and enhances each state's ability to secure competitive funding and tackle complex climate change research agendas.  In keeping with the Consortium mission, Innovation Working Group (IWG) funds are being made available to support collaborative, trans-disciplinary work by the three member states.  This IWG program supports week-long working group activities. The second call for Tri-State IWG proposals is now open until December 1, 2009.  Nevada faculty please note there is also an additional budget sheet for your use.

1st Annual Meeting
March 31 - April 1, 2009

Boise, Idaho

Each year the Western Consortium of Idaho, Nevada and New Mexico will conduct an annual meeting of current NSF EPSCoR participants.  A primary purpose of this meeting is to foster collaborations among the NSF EPSCoR RII projects and participants in our states.

Objectives for the annual tri-state meeting:

Meetings among directors, cyberinfrastructure experts, scientists, and educators from the three states to identify common challenges and solutions. These meetings will rotate among the various EPSCoR jurisdictions and may expand to include other western EPSCoR states that have overlapping interests. Collaborative activities include (but are not limited to):

     a) sharing in graduate student advisory roles across jurisdictions;

     b) creating, during the five-year period, a regional north-south comparison of how watersheds in the region respond to climate change;

     c) sharing of knowledge and experience on hydro-meteorological instrumentation

     d) development of a tri-state collaboratory for hydro-climatological analysis and modeling;

     e) development of common approaches to translation of the results of scientific investigations for use by decision makers;

     f) creative approaches to comparing output from regional climate, hydrologic, and ecologic models;

     g) advanced visualization of scientific data for research, education, and outreach; and

     h) development of materials for K-12 education and public outreach.

Milestones and Timeline: Regional meetings will be held annually and reports will be produced that identify common regional scientific, education and outreach, and CI challenges and solutions.

Final Agenda

Attendee List

Meeting Presentations (Click on Links Below)

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

EPSCoR and NSF Priorities

Keynote: Water and Carbon Exchange between a Subalpine Forest and the Atmosphere: Taking the Complexity out of Complex Terrain
Russell Monson, Professor of Biology, University of Colorado at Boulder
 

Improving Communication in Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration
Stephen Crowley, Boise State University/J.D. Wulfhorst, University of Idaho

Overview of State EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Activities and Q&A: Idaho, Nevada & New Mexico
Von Walden – Idaho
Bill Michener – New Mexico
Gayle Dana – Nevada

Breakout Sessions:
 

(A) Observational Networks: Climate, hydrology and vegetation: in-situ data collection for improved models inputs and understanding climate change effects.  Richard Allen (ID), Jay Arnone (NV), John Wilson (NM)
 

(B) Social and Economic Research: Interdisciplinary research and modeling: integrating climate, hydrologic, economic and social models.

Scott Lowe (ID), William Smith/Thomas Piechota (NV), Sam Fernald (NM)

(C) Hydrology: Climate impacts on mountain sources of water: snow hydrology, water quality, and water resources.
Tim Link/Alistair Smith (ID), Laurel Saito (NV), Cliff Dahm (NM)

(D) Climate Science: Regional climate modeling and coupling climate - hydrologic models.
Joe Galewsky (NM), Venkat Sridhar (ID), Darko Koracin (NV)

(E) Ecology: Climate change effects on vegetation.
Colden Baxter (ID), Franco Biondi (NV)
 

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Presentations: Examples of Effective Education and Outreach Programs that Emphasize Diversity. Janet Callahan (ID), Dave Hassenzahl (NV), Marnie Carroll (NM)

Breakout Sessions:

(F) Public Outreach: Creating an informed citizenry; identifying and collaborating with stakeholder groups and decision-makers. William Smith (NV), Von Walden/Colden Baxter (ID)

(G) Integration of Research and Education: Programs to increase participation in STEM fields, K-12 materials development, and educational outreach programs). Jacque Ewing-Taylor (NV), Katherine Mitchell/Clyde Romero (NM), Paul Allan (ID)

CI Working Group.  Renzo Sanchez-Silva (NM)

Cyberinfrastructure (CI) Report Out:  Common regional CI challenges and solutions.  Karl Benedict (NM)