HIRONO ANNOUNCES MORE THAN $3.5 MILLION IN GRANTS TO SUPPORT RESEARCH AT UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII

U.S. Departments of Commerce and Education Support UH Research for Climate Change Resilience and to Further Hawaii’s Asia-Pacific Engagement

HONOLULU – Senator Mazie K. Hirono today announced more than $3.5 million in grant awards to the University of Hawaii (UH) for the UH Sea Grant College Program and for Asia-Pacific research and scholarships. The UH Sea Grant College Program has received more than $1.6 million in federal support from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for research and programming to understand the effects of climate change on coral reefs and oceans, groundwater and other impacts on the Hawaiian Islands. The U.S. Department of Education has awarded nearly $1.9 million for UH research on activity throughout the Asia-Pacific region and to support language study and travel grants.

“Investments in the University of Hawaii’s research and programming are integral to giving students more opportunities, gaining valuable insights into the challenges facing our communities and fostering better engagement in the broader world,” said Senator Hirono. “It is important that we maintain healthy coral reefs and water sources, and gain as much insight as possible into the effects of climate change. With the U.S. government’s ongoing rebalance to the Pacific, it is important that American students, diplomats and policy makers have a working understanding of Asia-Pacific countries and cultures. The awards announced today will help the University of Hawaii conduct research and provide programming to achieve these important goals.”

The UH Sea Grant College Program has received funds from NOAA as a part of the broader Sea Grant Program. UH is one of only 33 universities in the United States that is a member of the Sea Grant Program. Through university and state partnerships, federal funding will support projects that help build resilient coastal communities and economies.

The U.S. Department of Education is providing funding to UH Manoa with the goal of enabling the university to teach foreign languages and international affairs more effectively. UH also received funding that will allow students to conduct research abroad in their areas of focus.

NOAA funds will be allocated to the following UH Sea Grant Projects:

UH Sea Grant Project	Federal Award Amount
Engineering Feasibility Study of a Water Catchment System for Moku o Loe (Coconut Island), Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, Kaneohe, HI	$90,510
Ocean Acidification Monitoring Network, Oahu, Hawaii	$30,144
Groundwater Inundation: Doubling Community Damage from Sea Level Rise	$48,071
Humankind’s Biogeochemical Experiment: Ocean Acidification and “Coral Reef” Dissolution	$34,967
Forecasting climate change impacts on coastal ecosystem services in Hawaii through integration of ecological and social participatory models	$10,192
Global and regional vulnerability to 21st century climate shifts in current areas of plant growth	$34,996
Coral adaptation and acclimatization to global change: resilience to hotter, more acidic oceans	$10,500
Groundwater-derived nutrient uptake in coastal ecosystems as driver of reef accretion-erosion balance	$74,982
Quantifying transport and differentiation of land-use impacts of groundwater nutrient loadings to the coastal zones of Maui	$51,260
Disease Outbreak Investigation on the Reefs of Kauai	$14,875
The effects of anthropogenic noise on humpback whale mother-calf pairs	$24,953
Maintaining healthy coastal ecosystems: understanding disease risk of Hawaii’s coral reefs and sources of coral pathogens	$16,933
Sea Grant Extension Program	$563,398
Communications Program	$222,533
Graduate Trainee Program	$438,730
Program Development	$20,076

U.S. Department of Education funds will be allocated for the following Fulbright-Hays and International and Foreign Language Education Projects:

Type of Funding	UH Unit	Federal Award Amount
Language Resource Center	College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature, Center for Language and Technology	$178,568
National Resource Center	College of Social Sciences, Geography Department - World Area: East Asia	$219,850
National Resource Center	College of Arts and Humanities, Department of Theater and Dance, Asian Theater Program - World Area: Southeast Asia	$239,400
National Resource Center	School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Center for Pacific Islands Studies - World Area: Southeast Asia (Pacific Islands)	$228,000
FLAS Fellowship	School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Center for Pacific Islands Studies - World Area: Southeast Asia (Pacific Islands)	$177,000
FLAS Fellowship	College of Arts and Humanities, Department of Theater and Dance, Asian Theater Program - World Area: Southeast Asia	$348,000
FLAS Fellowship	College of Social Sciences, Geography Department - World Area: East Asia	$376,500
Fulbright-Hays - Group Projects Abroad (GPA)	Host Country: Cambodia	$78,562
Fulbright-Hays - Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA)		$41,793