The Montana University System Science and Technology Advisory Committee (MUSSTAC), composed of the MUS commissioner’s office, university leaders, the governor’s office, state legislators, and representatives of the business community, constitute the state-wide Montana EPSCoR Advisory Committee.  This committee recently completed a new state-wide Montana Science and Technology Plan (2009), which is available through the Montana NSF EPSCoR website.  The S&T plan identified five core focus areas within the MUS for strategic development and capacity building in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) research and education.  The Advisory Committee, following a competitive process throughout the MUS, selected two of these focus areas for NSF EPSCoR investment for this award:  Environmental and Ecosystem Science (EES) and Energy Sciences and Engineering (ES&E).  This proposal is fully commensurate with the State-wide S&T Strategic Plan and has the full support of the Montana EPSCoR Advisory Committee (MUSSTAC) and the Office of the Montana Commissioner of Higher Education.