Research Opportunities in Collaborative and Innovative Research
  

                           MEMORANDUM 

                                                                           
                                                February 26, 2001 


To:    All U.S. Geological Survey Employees 

From:  Chip Groat (signed) 
      Director 

Subject:  Research Opportunities in Collaborative and Innovative Research 

In December, I announced the establishment of a $1 million fund to support 
collaborative and innovative research and put out a call for proposals for 
research projects.  The Associate Directors, Chief Scientists, and I were 
gratified and excited to receive more than 250 submissions from our 
scientists across the Nation.  The number and quality of these proposals 
reaffirm the energy and vitality of the USGS. They are an important 
advance in our efforts to enhance the "integrative habit of inquiry" that 
is needed to address the scientific and societal challenges of the 21st 
century. 

Choosing among the many excellent proposals that were received was a 
difficult task, and I truly wish we could have funded more of the proposed 
research. The ideas included in all of the proposals will be extremely 
useful as we further refine the future science directions and programs of 
the USGS. 

In consultation with the Associate Directors and the Chief Scientists, I 
have chosen 14 proposals to fund, and I am pleased to announce them today: 

Barnes, Peter W., and Fleischer, Guy -- Application of a High-Resolution 
Lakebed Mapping Technique for Evaluation of Lake Trout Spawning Habitat in 
Northern Lake Michigan 

Bogan, Michael A., and Cryan, Paul M. -- Use of Stable Isotopes to Trace 
the Transcontinental Migration of U.S. Tree Bats 

Frondorf, Anne -- Application of Internet Supercomputing Resources to USGS 
Research Questions 

Karl, Herman -- A Collaborative Problem Solving Approach Toward 
Watershed-based Land Use Planning: Empowering Citizens to Use Integrated 
Multidisciplinary Information in Community-based Decisionmaking 

Knick, Steven T., and Loveland, Thomas R. -- Response of Breeding Bird 
Populations to Multiscale Landscape Changes in the Intermountain West 

Kotliar, Natasha B., Cannon Susan H., Chong, Geneva W., Haire, Sandra L., 
Key, Carl H., Kokaly, Raymond F., Martin, Deborah A., Moody, John A., and 
Taylor, Jonathan G. -- The Ecological, Hydrological, and Geological 
Consequences of Burn Severity and Social Application of Those Results 

Larsen, Curt, Desmond, Greg, Guntenspergen, Glen, Yanosky, Tom, and Hupp, 
Cliff -- Wetland Loss or Wetland Gain?: Planning for Rising Sea Level in 
Coastal Wildlife Refuges 

Nimick, David and Farag, Aida -- Diel Cycling of Trace Metals in Streams 

Nuccio, Vito, O'Neill, Timothy, Brooks, Myron, Hunter, Don, Stohlgren, 
Tom, and Flores, Romeo -- Determining Present and Future Impacts of 
Coalbed Methane Development in the Powder River Basin WY and MT 

Podwysocki, Melvin H., Euliss, Jr., Ned H., and LaBaugh, James W. -- 
Evaluation of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing to Characterize Groundwater 
Geochemistry and Wildlife Habitat Associated with the Prairie Potholes 
Region of North America 

Reilly, Timothy J., Schrock, Robin, and Baehr, Arthur L., and Ottinger, 
Chris -- Cellular, Biochemical, and Immunological Methods Using Diatoms to 
Determine the Influence of Surface Water in Ground Water Systems 

Scholl, Martha A., Loope, Lloyd L., and Gingerich, Stephen B. -- 
Quantifying the Importance of Fog Drip to Ecosystem Hydrology and Water 
Resources in Windward and Leeward Tropical Montane Cloud Forests on East 
Maui, Hawaii 

Vincent, Kirk, Watts, Ray, and Auble, Greg -- Flood Hazard Assessment on 
Alluvial Fans 

Zhong, Lu, Meyer, David J., Wicks, Jr., Charles; Bawden, Gerald W., 
Galloway, Devin L., Danskin, Wesley R. -- Mapping Ground-Surface 
Deformation at Higher Vertical Accuracy Using Interferometric Point Target 
Analysis (IPTA) 

The cooperation and communication that resulted from this call demonstrate 
the ability and desire of our scientists to work together within USGS.  I 
encourage all scientists to continue this collaboration with both ongoing 
project work and new proposals.  I am confident that the venture capital 
funding will be put to excellent use this year and that we will see 
positive results from our innovative work.  I congratulate all of you for 
putting forth such a remarkable group of projects, and I encourage you to 
continue to work together to build the vitality and creativity of our 
programs. 

To those whose project proposals were not selected this year, I thank you 
for your thoughtful support of this initial call.  We hope to continue 
this process as a part of our regular operational planning, and I 
encourage you to participate again in future years.  Your proposals will 
be forwarded to the Associate and Regional Directors to encourage their 
further consideration of these valuable and creative opportunities.   
Thanks again to all who participated with us this year.