1. To leverage Sea Grant's university capabilities (research, education and outreach) with a broad range of Great Lakes stakeholders (users, general public, managers, and research scientists) to identify and prioritize critical resource management problems and the associated research and information needs necessary for practical solutions and to develop a strategy and network to facilitate, and enhance the value of, Great Lakes research, education and outreach.
2. To build upon the tremendously successful model of the Lake Erie Millennium Network (LEMN) and establish a voluntary, non-regulatory, binational structure for coordinating, communicating and collaborating (3 C's) on research, education, and outreach efforts on each of the Great Lakes and an overall network for the entire region.
3. To combine the individual networks from each of the five Great Lakes into a regional network to: identify and prioritize research, education, and outreach needs and gaps within each lake and the region as a whole; facilitate the development of multi-disciplinary, multi-agency, and multi-investigator research, education, and outreach proposals, projects, and programs; improve data management and the development of the Great Lakes Observation System within the Integrated Ocean Observation System (IOOS); and suggest standardized procedures for similar kinds of research and monitoring activities being conducted on each of the Lakes.
4. To provide an ongoing platform (network) for coordination, collaboration, communication and resource sharing and assist the Council of Great Lakes Research Managers of the International Joint Commission (IJC) in developing and implementing its Great Lakes Research Strategy.
5. To support and add value to existing regional management and coordination groups including the Lakewide Management Plans (LaMPs), Remedial Action Plan groups, Lake Technical Committees of the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission, Council of Great Lakes Research Managers of the IJC, etc.

The following quote is from the recommendations contained in the 12th Biennial Report on the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement by the IJC in September 2004, "The institutional model provided by the Lake Erie Millennium Network should be considered for adaptation and adoption to the other Great Lakes to foster enhanced binational cooperation and communication." This proposal will accomplish this and more.

The following quote is taken from the U.S Commission on Ocean Policy: An Ocean Blueprint for the 21^st Century. "... To move toward an ecosystem-based management approach, government should have the institutional capacity to respond to ocean and coastal issues in a coordinated fashion across jurisdictional boundaries." The report goes on to recommend that to initiate this process, NOAA, EPA, US Army Corps of Engineers, US Department of Interior, and US Department of Agriculture should: collaborate with regional, state, territorial, tribal, and local governments, and nongovernmental parties to identify regional priorities and information needs. The report also recommends that each region should include representation from federal agencies, state, territorial, tribal, and local decision makers, scientists, as well as experts in information exchange (education) and outreach. This is the accepted approach to Great Lakes management, with responsibilities shared among federal, state and tribal organizations and embodied, for example, in LaMPs. This proposal will enhance the ability of managers to incorporate science, socio-economics, and stakeholder values into their decisions.

We will develop an individual network for each Great Lake, and an overall network for the Great Lakes region, the Great Lakes Regional Research and Information Network (GLRRIN). This strategy is patterned after the very successful LEMN. LEMN is an award-winning, non-regulatory, voluntary network created in 1998. LEMN is led by four scientists-one from academia on each side of the border (Jan Ciborowski, University of Windsor, and Jeff Reutter, Ohio Sea Grant and Ohio State University) and one from a federal agency on each side (Russell Kreis, US EPA, and Murray Charlton, Environment Canada). LEMN is supported by an advisory committee with representatives from the LaMP, the Lake Erie Technical Committee, academia, state and provincial agencies, and the private sector.

Each lake network for the other four Great Lakes will also be coordinated by four people: two from academia (a Sea Grant Director and a Canadian scientist) and two people federal or provincial agencies (one from the US and one from Canada). The same structure will be used to coordinate the regional activities of GLRRIN, i.e. a Sea Grant Director from the US, a Canadian academic scientist, and representatives of a US and a Canadian federal agency.

The Great Lakes Regional Research Information Network (GLRRIN) was very successful in 2008. Key accomplishments are briefly listed below in bullet form.

• GLRRIN continues to be led by the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network and scientists and managers from six US universities, two Canadian universities, USEPA, NOAA, US Geological Survey, Environment Canada, Canada Department of Fisheries and Ocean, and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. We consider gaining the official participation of Environment Canada one of our most significant accomplishments this year. They are clearly one of the most important components of the complex research and management community in the Great Lakes.

• Each lake continues to be led by two university scientists (one from each side of the border) and two agency scientists (one from each side of the border). Overall GLRRIN is led by Jeff Reutter, Ohio State University and Ohio Sea Grant, Jan Ciborowski, the University of Windsor, Paul Horvatin, USEPA, and John Lawrence, Environment Canada.

• We have found that GLRRIN is most successful and has the greatest impact when it is used by the Great Lakes management and research community. This year the Binational Executive Committee (BEC) created their Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative (CSMI) for the region. This strategy includes the development of research and monitoring priorities for each of the five Great Lakes and the region and the development of an intensive field sampling year on each lake on a five year rotation. The BEC has given GLRRIN an official role in this process to aid in priority setting and outreach for each lake and the region (See Figure). This is a huge accomplishment as it means that the governments of the US and Canada are using GLRRIN to assist them in developing their research and monitoring priorities for the region. Therefore, rather than developing a single report of regional priorities, we are part of a binational process that will review and develop priorities each year.

• Jeff Reutter, Director of Ohio Sea Grant and one of the Chairs of GLRRIN, was appointed the US Co-Chair of the Council of Great Lakes Research Managers of the International Joint Commission.

• GLRRIN facilitated meetings of scientists around each lake to assist with the development of research priorities. As an example, on 9-10 December GLRRIN called together a group of scientists and hosted a video conference at The Ohio State University with nodes at Kent State University, the Tom Ridge Lake Erie Center at Erie, Buffalo State College, Environment Canada at Burlington, US EPA at Grosse Ile, US EPA in Duluth, and the University of Toledo to discuss research coordination and collaboration on Lake Erie in 2009. Approximately 75 scientists participated in the video conference. A portion of the program was devoted to the development of a coordinated and well integrated group of proposals to address five separate components for the request for proposals (RFP) from US EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO). We believed that a coordinated group of proposals would make all of the partnering proposals more competitive and produce results that would be much more valuable to managers. Following the video conference GLRRIN organized group conference calls on 18 and 23 December and an all-day, face to face planning meeting at the Old Woman Creek NERR on 6 January. This meeting was followed by conference calls on 20 and 27 January of the leadership team and numerous conference calls of the teams preparing the individual proposals. We also agreed to develop two cooperative proposals to the Lake Erie Protection Fund. GLRRIN wrote a support letter for the group that was incorporated into the 7 proposals.

Bottom line--the collaborative strategy paid off. All 7 projects were funded. Total award from EPA is $500K. Total award from Lake Erie Protection Fund is $250K. All of the projects deal with some aspect of the phosphorus problem on Lake Erie. Each of the PIs agreed to tax their project 5% to support coordination, outreach and synthesis of results. We are also seeking additional funds for this purpose. Other Institutions involved were Case Western, Kent State, Univ of Toledo, Defiance College, Heidelberg Univ, John Carroll, Penn State, Univ. of Windsor, and Buffalo State.