Measuring sustainability of seed-funded earth science informatics projects.

Short term funding is a common funding model for informatics projects. Funders are interested in maximizing the sustainability and accessibility of the outputs, but there are no commonly accepted practices to do so in the Earth sciences informatics field. We constructed and applied a framework for sustainability drawing from other disciplines that have more published work focusing on sustainability of projects. This framework had seven sustainability influences (outputs modified, code repository used, champion present, workforce stability, support from other organizations, collaboration/partnership, and integration with policy), and three ways of defining sustainability (at the individual-, organization-, and community-level). Using this framework, we evaluated outputs of projects funded by the U.S. Geological Survey's Community for Data Integration (CDI). We found that the various outputs are widely accessible, but not necessarily sustained or maintained. Projects with most sustainability influences often became institutionalized and met required needs of the community. Even if proposed outputs were not delivered or sustained, knowledge of lessons learned could be spread to build community capacity in a topic, which is another type of sustainability. We conclude by summarizing lessons for individuals applying for short-term funding, and for organizations managing programs that provide such funding, for maximizing sustainability of project outcomes.

Student leadership in public health advocacy: lessons learned from the hepatitis B initiative.

Increasing hepatitis B vaccination rates for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders is a priority. Laws requiring vaccination prior to school enrollment have helped, yet many youths remain unvaccinated. The Hepatitis B Initiative (HBI), launched in 1997 and operated by public health and medical school students, provides free screenings and vaccinations to Boston's Asian American/Pacific Islander community, with a focus on youths. By October 2002, 997 HBI patients from Boston's Chinatown had received free hepatitis B screenings. Of these, 384 patients (39%) were deemed susceptible to the hepatitis B virus and provided with free vaccination.