We believe that long-term success in maintaining pipelines between MSIs and IU depends on creating strong networks of interaction among the faculty. Such connections among diverse peers strengthen collaboration and spark innovation, as well as serving as a research development tool for MSI faculty. Thus we propose to create the Faculty Research Development Institute (FRDI). The FRDI will take the form of an annual weeklong series of workshops that provides faculty the opportunity to build research connections and to identify new funding sources to support their projects and student researchers. During this event, faculty also can discuss potential students in their respective institutions who might pair well with one of the IU faculty members they meet at the FRDI. These gatherings will foster on-going discussions around mutual research interests. This year's event will be held July 22-26, 2019 at the IU Bloomington campus.

In addition, the Office of Navy grant will support a platform for Digital Collaborations. Digital collaborations will occur in between the face-to-face gatherings (FRDI and Faculty/Student Exchanges) in order to develop the human resources component of the program. The digital collaborations will include email, video conferencing and webinars, and access to Canvas, a learning management system designed to simplify teaching and learning in higher education settings. The digital collaborations will allow faculty members to continue developing research interests and grant proposals across a common platform. The IU-MSI STEM Initiative website will also be modified to include access to the digital collaboration portal. As the model is fully developed and paired faculty teams solidify their research agendas, these established faculty collaborators will encourage other new faculty members from STEM departments to attend the face-to-face gatherings and establish additional faculty connections. The web portal will help develop sustainable faculty collaborations as funded research leads to additional face-to-face gatherings for the research teams.