We propose to create continuous and sustainable workshops and training sessions that enhance institutional capacity through innovative partnerships between the pacific minority serving institutions…

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded a $299,697.55 cooperative agreement to the University of Hawaii at Manoa to enhance the institutional capacity and competitiveness of Pacific Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) in securing NASA funding. The project, titled "Workshops to Enhance Institutional Capacity through Innovative Partnerships between Pacific Institutions" (WEICIPPI), aims to create sustainable workshops and training sessions that enable the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) and the University of Guam (UOG) to become more competitive in obtaining NASA grants and contracts. The agreement supports the expansion of existing research in areas such as small satellite maneuvers, orbital debris, and planetary landing, as well as the development of new four-year aerospace engineering and engineering degree programs at UHM and UOG, respectively. The project also intends to establish a partnership with the College of the Marshall Islands to further enhance STEM education and research capabilities in the Pacific region. No set-aside designation was used for this award.

We propose to create continuous and sustainable workshops and training sessions that enhance institutional capacity through innovative partnerships between the pacific minority serving institutions (MSI). These opportunities will enable the university of hawai i at manoa (UHM) and university of guam (UOG), the two leading western-accredited msis in the pacific, with nasaprioritized capabilities to become competitive in securing NASA funding resources, grants and contracts. The recently NASA-funded hawai i s engaged stem pathways (hestemp) project of UHM in collaboration with UH-hilo, kapiolani community college and several high schools of oahu and big island has initiated and developed several important studies and key research projects, including small satellite maneuvers, multi-body problems, orbital debris, atmospheric aerosol studies, planetary landing maneuvers, optimal transfers, investigations in water extraction on a planetary surface, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) studies. UOG has augmented current research priorities in water resource management, karst aquifer modeling, and coral reef resilience with NASA collaborations in the remote sensing (RS) and geographic information systems, made possible through the recently minted NASA guam epscor program. Overall, these UHM and UOG studies have laid out a theoretical and foundational framework and created a gateway for under-represented and underserved students to conduct hands-on simulations to address the long-term NASA strategic goals and objectives in earth sciences and space exploration. Moreover, this has contributed to the initiation of the UHM s new fouryear aerospace engineering BSC degree and UOG s establishment of a new four-year engineering BSC degree program. The proposed project aims to build critically important capabilities on top of these studies and through innovative partnership of the UHM with the UOG. These capabilities are application-driven and mission-related, and they integrate crosscutting skills and advance emerging NASA mission technologies, thereby enhancing the institutional capacity for securing NASA funds and resources, and ensuring the success and sustainability of the partnership. In particular, IT is proposed to initiate and develop a new culture of the proposal preparation and submission at the UHM and UOG, and by using internal and external MOC review . As educational outreach, the project team intends to reach out to the college of marshall islands (CMI) to establish a long-term partnership by initiating the studies on the key projects. These partnerships between the UHM, UOG and CMI pave the way to enriching and extending the stem education and research capabilities, thereby building the institutional capacity and leveraging the competitiveness of these universities for securing NASA funding resources. For easy reference, the project is titled workshops to enhance institutional capacity through innovative partnerships between pacific institutions or weicippi.