A Research &
Development Plan 

Under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Oil Pollution Act (OPA), NOAA (with other Trustees) conducts Natural Resource Damage Assessments (NRDAs) to compensate the public for injuries to natural resources. NOAA’s OR&R Assessment and Restoration Division (ARD) in conjunction with NOAA’s Damage Assessment, Remediation, and Restoration Program (DARRP) evaluates releases from hazardous waste sites and oil/chemical spills where a NRDA for marine, estuarine, or coastal resources may be warranted. However, the ability of these decision makers to accurately describe and quantify the injuries from contaminants can be difficult due to a lack of baseline knowledge about the condition of species and their supporting habitats aside from the exposure of interest.

For example, in the coastal waters near Houston (Galveston Bay and adjacent waters; hereafter “the Houston area”), common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus; hereafter “dolphins”) live in an industrialized waterway that supports one of the largest petrochemical complexes and ports in the world1. The area is the focus for multiple NRDAs, both ongoing and prospective, and dolphins are a species of particular interest2. A NMFS risk assessment scored three groups of dolphins in the area as high research priorities3. Federal, State, and non-profit agencies have conducted surveys of both contaminants in the Galveston Bay System (e.g., for dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls [PCBs]) and of dolphin sightings, but little is known about contaminant loads in Houston area dolphin tissues and dolphin survival rates. Furthermore, the combined dose-response effects from these contaminants on wildlife is poorly understood.

DARRP must make a decision as to whether or not to pursue one or more NRDAs for injuries to dolphins (and other natural resources) based on a preliminary assessment of the evidence for exposure and injury, including any existing knowledge of likely toxic effects from the released hazardous substances. For the Houston area (and other areas with multiple sources of contamination), decisions can be complex due to uncertainties associated with existing health effects from prior or ongoing stressors. Although the decision to pursue a NRDA includes many factors, NOAA resource managers would greatly benefit from addressing these uncertainties so that they have the context to interpret the effects on dolphins from exposure to specific hazardous substances.

NRDA resource managers must also decide whether the cumulative effects of the multiple stressors need to be evaluated. Furthermore, if a NRDA is conducted, an effective plan must be developed to restore for the injuries. Again, the managers must consider injuries from multiple stressors. For example, natural resource managers/Trustees could pursue one or more NRDAs and restoration of natural resources at National Priorities List Superfund sites within the Houston Ship area that are chronic sources of PCB and dioxin contamination. Houston-area dolphins affected by these hazardous waste sites may have unique physiological injuries (in quality and/or quantity) compared to dolphins that are exposed to only one contaminant or the other. This is one of the challenges confronting natural resource managers.

PCBs and dioxins are endocrine disruptors that affect similar physiological systems (e.g., the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid [HPT]) axis)4-5. Therefore, NOAA resource managers need to understand potential interactions (e.g., additive, synergistic, antagonistic) of cumulative exposure to characterize impacts. A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) panel investigating the population consequences of multiple stressors (PCoMS) concluded that existing science is insufficient to understand stressor interactions and effectively analyze the effects from multiple anthropogenic stressors6. We propose to fill data gaps across biological levels to assess how contaminants affect the HPT axis (or other systems), lead to adverse health outcomes, and ultimately affect survival.

Our scoping and design phases included a workshop with marine mammal researchers and NOAA decision makers to build tools for this purpose. Using these tools and the literature7, we identified PCBs and dioxins as a high-interest multiple stressors scenario for NRDAs considering Houston area dolphins. Ideally, resource managers would have data about chemical exposures and individual doses, their resulting physiological and behavioral responses, the respective effects on health and individual survival, and what that means at the population level (Figure 1, blue arrows). With protected and cryptic species like dolphins, such comprehensive data is difficult, but during our workshop we identified key uncertainties that could be addressed to most benefit NRDA decision makers going forward (Figure 1, orange overlays).

The four highest priority activities represent the specific research questions of this Research and Development Plan:

We would analyze blubber samples from previous remote biopsy surveys and from a new remote biopsy survey to better understand average contaminant loads (both PCBs and dioxins) across the population, as well as individual doses compared to each animal’s ranging pattern (via sightings history) and health (via epigenetics). We would compare contaminant loads across sex, age, and reproductive life-history parameters of Houston area dolphins, as well as with other dolphin populations across the Southeast U.S. (SEUS)8-9. We would test the prediction that dolphins that spend more time near contaminated sites will have larger contaminant loads10.

We have persistent organic pollutants (POP) concentrations for ~60 Houston area dolphins in hand, and through an additional remote biopsy survey, we would collect another 15-30 samples: specifically targeting dolphins near where the Houston Ship Channel opens into Upper Galveston Bay (where we expect higher exposures of contaminants from Superfund sites that have not completed their Remedial Action). The NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) has extensive experience measuring POPs (including PCBs) from marine mammal blubber, and we would build on our past collaborations with them to integrate their scientists into our proposed activities. In addition, we would also identify cases (n = 5-10) from fresh, dead strandings with fresh or archived blubber samples, and use these to supplement our dataset. These cases may be especially important because they would have additional health data from necropsy and pathology reports.

We have also begun measuring dioxins from the ~60 samples in hand (via existing funding) and would analyze the additional remote biopsy and necropsy samples. We would work with existing collaborators (an analytical chemistry laboratory at Texas A&M University) to finalize the technique and hopefully make the process more efficient by using the same extraction process as that established for PCB analysis at NWFSC. NOAA OR&R and OPR are both interested in establishing this method for measuring dioxin levels in blubber for this research and beyond. With a sample size of ~80-90 dolphins, we would then be able to evaluate PCB and dioxin exposure and doses to inform 1) cell culture exposures and 2) PCoMS modeling efforts11 and NRDA decision making. A key aspect of our co-production process would be to come together after all the potential samples have been collected and before any new analytical chemistry is performed, to ensure that we collectively agree on the best selection of samples to inform our research questions.

We would conduct laboratory exposures with cell lines to better understand the physiological impacts of dioxins alone, PCBs alone, and both chemicals together. By exposing cells to a range of chemical exposures in a controlled experimental set up, we would be able to define dose-response curves for each contaminant and for the combined exposure, as well as identify the specific thresholds at which cellular and molecular effects take place. Our results from the analytical chemistry laboratories would help us define the specific mixtures of PCB and dioxin congeners and their relative amounts, so that the exposures are as relevant as possible to the doses experienced by Houston area dolphins. We would work as a team to identify the specific HPT axis, immune system, and other physiological endpoints that would be most useful for interpretation of wild dolphin health assessment and strandings data, and therefore for marine mammal NRDA decision making. These endpoints would likely include free and bound thyroid hormone levels (e.g., triiodothyronine [T3], thyroxine [T4], and thyroid stimulating hormone [TSH]), selected mRNA transcript levels, and/or cell activity/signaling assays. We would focus on commercially-available human, primate, and/or rodent cell lines with reasonable HPT signaling pathway behavior, which would maximize the number of established kits, reagents, and assays available for the endpoints of interest.

With the three dose-response curves in hand, we would be able to identify whether the two contaminants have an interactive toxic effect on endpoints12-15. Multiple chemical compounds operating through the HPT pathway and molecular target/mechanism may be more likely to produce additive effects, whereas operating through the same pathway but different mechanisms may produce non-additive effects. We can use the dose-response curves to better interpret what the doses measured in our analytical chemistry efforts mean for the health of Houston area dolphins. This would inform how decision makers characterize impacts from specific contaminants in the context of the multiple stressor reality of the Houston area. We would stay flexible about adding additional endpoints, as possible, based on new information about how POPs impact the HPT axis, immune function, and other aspects of physiological health. In the future, if NOAA decides to pursue an injury assessment of Houston area dolphins, these data would be critical for any development of more case- or site-specific experiments with other cell lines, such as primary marine mammal cell lines from HPT tissues.

While some data are available on how PCBs/dioxins impact dolphin health16, none are available for Houston area dolphins. Although we would have a small number of stranded cases with necropsy and pathology information about individual dolphin health, most of the biopsied dolphins would not have paired health data. However, we can analyze epigenetic patterns (e.g., DNA methylation levels at particular sites in the genome) from skin tissue to understand overall health of individual dolphins17. The epigenetic signatures of unhealthy individuals can appear older or younger than their actual age (e.g., smokers appear older than their actual age18). We will collect skin samples, extract DNA, and analyze epigenetic profiles to estimate chronological (age based on number of years since birth) and biological ages (age based on health, stress, and lived experience). We would test our prediction that if Houston area dolphins are exposed to dioxins and PCBs, there would be a discrepancy between their biological and chronological ages, due to adverse health from the toxic effects of the chemicals.

We would use the same set of biopsy samples from our analytical chemistry analysis, and work with our collaborators at The Clock Foundation for the epigenetics analysis (n = 96 samples, i.e., one microwell plate). At an individual level, we can compare the PCB and dioxin levels with each dolphin’s biological age to see if there is a correlation. We have developed elastic net and random forest models with ~750 epigenetic dolphin samples19 so that at a population level, we could compare the Houston area dolphins to relatively healthy reference populations in the SEUS and/or populations facing a variety of other environmental stressors.

In the future, if NOAA decides to pursue an injury assessment of Houston area dolphins, our epigenetic and analytical chemistry data can then be used to target specific animals for health assessments, or to provide a broader context for how to interpret future health assessment information. Thus, decision makers could better link the endpoints from the cell studies, veterinary examinations of Houston area dolphins, and the bigger-picture epigenetic biological age/health of the individuals and population. Our epigenetic models are continually updated to incorporate additional information, such as evaluating epigenetic trends/markers based on specific health endpoints, so as new information becomes available, we would incorporate them in updated and/or new analyses to help decision makers.

Survival, at both the individual- and population-level, is a key factor in understanding PCoMS and assessing injury for NRDAs with marine mammals. We would conduct three surveys (in Years 1, 3, and 5) to inform spatial capture-mark-recapture (CMR) analysis, allowing us to estimate population 2-year and 5-year survival rates across the five-year project period. We would leverage existing data from past surveys1, 20-22 and compare the Houston-area rates to other populations across the SEUS23. We could also leverage our parallel work on another project, the Veterinary Expert System for Outcome Predictions (VESOP), to generate and compare health endpoints and VESOP survival predictions from the epigenetics analyses with the survival estimates from the CMR analysis. We expect that the Houston area dolphin population would have lower survival rates compared to populations from less contaminated areas.

Our study design would be based on robust CMR surveys, similar to those we have performed previously20, 24-26. Each year’s survey, or primary session, would include up to 12 on‑water days in order to cover transects across the Houston area waters three times (three secondary sessions per primary session) during the late summer (a time when wind should be relatively low). We would use four boats with crews experienced in photo-identification methods, and we would operate under existing NOAA permits and standard protocols/best practices. We would use standard computer programs (e.g., FinBase and finFindR) to facilitate photo-analysis across the teams and make the data entry, analysis, and validation as efficient as possible. Our team would then conduct spatial CMR modeling similar to what we have done in other bays, sounds, and estuaries in the SEUS for NRDA cases and other research projects.

Together, research on these four priority questions would facilitate future Houston-area NRDAs by providing decision-makers with context for understanding health data vs exposure data in the local dolphins, including contaminant burdens, survival rates, overall health, and dose-response relationships for singular and combined PCB/dioxin exposures. Addressing these uncertainties would enable NRDA decision-makers to better evaluate jurisdiction under the preassessment phase and develop targeted studies to answer site-specific concerns as part of the injury assessment and restoration planning activities. Importantly, our studies would be meant to help decision makers by addressing current priority data gaps to facilitate future NRDAs but they would not be a substitute for NRDAs. In other words, our proposed work would not be designed as a standalone study, but as one important part of a co-produced, broader set of research and decision-making about dolphins and the numerous National Priorities List Superfund sites undergoing cleanup in the Houston area.

Resource managers have been unable to identify ways to fund the proposed work. Thus, our co-production lead, natural resource managers, and research team would all work closely (via dedicated in-person meetings and conference calls) to evaluate next steps at each critical milestone during our project. Such milestones would include planning, analysis, and interpretation phases for:

• each field effort (CMR surveys and the remote biopsy survey), 

• the cell study, 

• the epigenetics sample selection and analysis, 

• the analytical chemistry sample selection and analysis, and 

• the PCoMS, epigenetic, and CMR modeling efforts. 

This adaptive management process would focus on how our ongoing efforts are helping to address the uncertainties and relationships within our conceptual model (Figure 1).

NOAA resource managers have identified several sites in the Houston area that involve NRDA-related evaluations, preassessments, injury assessments, and restoration planning over the next six to ten years, and anticipate more sites/incidents in the future. The process and criteria for determining if a NRDA is warranted are complex. A specific timeline for the process depends on an unpredictable combination of actions by and discussions with other stakeholders and natural resource Trustees. Having conceptual models developed, methods ready, and data available to reduce uncertainty on cumulative effects from multiple contaminants for dolphins would be a huge asset for informed decision making. NOAA will also be evaluating restoration activities that are scheduled in the Houston area within the next six to ten years. All of our proposed activities and the products we would develop would strive to incorporate iterative data collection, analysis, and application with stakeholders.

During our scoping/design phases, we developed a framework to help marine mammal NRDA decision makers evaluate multiple contaminants/stressors in the context of injury and restoration assessments. We tested the tools using three case studies, including one scenario with PCB and dioxin co-exposure. Our expected findings from the four research questions proposed herein would address the four primary uncertainties identified by our working group using that conceptual model tool. With more information about the relationships among: 

1) contaminant loads in the dolphin blubber
2) dose-response relationships between the contaminants and adverse physiological mechanisms
3) dolphin health represented by epigenetic aging and
4) survival rates

resource managers would have a more complete picture of the PCoMS conceptual model for this particular population of dolphins and their potential injuries from Superfund sites that are legacy sources of PCBs and dioxins in the Houston area. NRDA decision makers would be able to design more specific and targeted studies for their particular cases/assessments of interest, and anyone conducting risk assessments of other potential stressors in the Houston area (e.g., the Bolivar Roads storm surge barrier27) would be able to evaluate cumulative effects to marine mammals with more context. We would work with decision makers to co-produce statistical models, analyses, and conceptual models that can be updated based on additional data/assumptions that they or others may collect in the future.

Beyond the management decision at hand, the actionable science proposed here would also advance methodology for measuring dioxins in marine mammal blubber, serve as another case study for the NASEM PCoMS working group, and increase our collective understanding of Houston area dolphins. In addition to supporting management decisions about potential and current NRDAs, all of the data and analyses proposed here would be critical in establishing baseline conditions for future contamination events in the Houston area, or for the evaluation of other stressors to marine mammals, such as the proposed storm surge barrier28-29. We would upload our datasets to appropriate repositories (see our Data Management Plan) so that the appropriate stakeholders have access to the results from our studies.

Most of our co-investigator team was part of our working group that scoped and designed this project together in Galveston, TX. We would continue to consult closely with the working group from that effort, as needed. Between our project team and working group members, we have a broad network in the marine mammal, NRDA, and toxicology fields, and we were deeply integrated into the marine mammal assessments for the DWH NRDA. Our project would benefit because the co-production lead, management bodies, and local stakeholders most involved with our management decision have been and would continue to be co-investigators throughout the project.

We have both 1) a group of institutions and agencies that cover the various aspects of decision making, research, local stakeholders, and community engagement related to our management decision, and 2) individuals who throughout their careers have worked on research, resource management, and outreach/engagement within co-production environments. Our fields of NRDA science and protected resource management have a rich history in this approach to addressing challenges. Our potential team is built on successful working relationships from past projects and would continue to implement the co-production lessons we have learned from those experiences. 

Dr. Michel Gielazyn is a natural resource manager and co-investigator representing the NOAA ARD team making decisions about NRDAs in the Houston area and beyond. She has >19 years working for NOAA to evaluate contamination of natural resources and identify ways to make the public whole for the injuries. 

Dr. Teresa Rowles is a natural resource manager and co-investigator representing the NOAA OPR team making decisions about restoration planning, NEPA evaluations, and wildlife management actions in the Houston area and all U.S. waters. She is a veterinarian with >30 years of health and conservation experience, and has served as NOAA’s MMHSRP coordinator for >25 years. 

Both Drs. Gielazyn and Rowles were integral in the scoping and design phases of the project and will ensure that all our activities are framed in co-producing scientific support for Houston area NRDAs and marine mammal decision making.

Our lead investigator, Dr. Ryan Takeshita, has >15 years of experience with toxicology and marine mammals, including with boundary-spanning teams on injury/restoration evaluations for NRDAs. During DWH, he served as a technical consultant and project manager that worked closely with NOAA resource managers and researchers to coordinate and report on toxicology research portfolios and marine mammal assessments. Dr. Takeshita led the scoping and design phases of this project and will oversee the project team’s activities and collaborative efforts, including NMMF’s support of field activities and data analysis, as well as contribute to technical analysis/interpretation and the drafting, editing, and finalization of all deliverables.

Dr. Lori Schwacke is our co-production lead and the Director of Scientific Programs at the Marine Mammal Commission (MMC). She has >20 years of experience with biostatistics, epidemiology, and population health, both with NMMF and NOAA. These prior positions, in combination with her new role at the MMC, provide her with perspective and relationships that will be key to overseeing and evaluating effective co-production among our team. She led dolphin field studies and injury quantification for the DWH NRDA, and served as an expert for the NASEM Committee for Assessment of the Cumulative Effects of Anthropogenic Stressors on Marine Mammals. She will also assist with data analysis and modeling efforts.

Our team also consists of marine mammal and toxicology researchers that are especially well-suited to addressing our specific research questions in the Houston area. Ms. Kristi Fazioli (Environmental Institute of Houston; EIH) and Dr. Vanessa Mintzer (Galveston Bay Foundation; GBF) lead the Galveston Bay Dolphin Research Program, studying the Houston area dolphins since 2014. Ms. Heidi Whitehead leads the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network (TMMSN) and their variety of rescue, rehabilitation, research, and education efforts. These three groups will be critical to our planning and execution of our proposed field work efforts in the Houston area, as well as providing important local insight for the interpretation of the findings for the natural resource managers. Mr. Erol Ronje will serve as an unpaid collaborator to help with the Houston area finbase catalog. Ms. Fazioli will also coordinate the analytical chemistry analysis of dioxins. 

Dr. Irvin Schultz, the Environmental Chemistry Program Manager at NOAA NWFSC, will coordinate the analytical chemistry analysis of PCBs, and will provide important expertise on our interpretation of PCB/dioxin endocrine disruption. 

Drs. Aaron Roberts and Amie Lund (University of North Texas) will lead the proposed cell-line laboratory exposure experiments and interpretation. Dr. Roberts is an environmental toxicologist with broad expertise in designing laboratory exposures to inform wildlife risk assessments, including marine mammal studies; Dr. Lund studies the molecular/cellular mechanistic pathways by which environmental pollutants impact physiological systems. 

Dr. Ashley Barratclough is a conservation medicine veterinarian with NMMF and will lead our epigenetic evaluation of Houston area dolphin health. 

Finally, we anticipate collaborating with statisticians (such as Dr. Len Thomas at the University of St Andrews) to lead the modelling efforts for survival and integrating our results into a PCoMS framework, using the products developed during our scoping/design phases.

Our project team has worked closely with each other across a variety of NRDA and natural resource decisions, including co-producing research plans and assessment reports, and we appreciate how a better understanding of multiple stressors could benefit the decision-making process for marine mammal assessment, conservation, and restoration. Most of our team was also part of the Working Group during the scoping and design phases of the project. Although marine mammals aren’t typically associated with any group of “resource users”, we believe that our project team represents the breadth of stakeholders involved in conserving and managing our U.S. marine mammal populations, including government (NOAA and MMC), local conservation groups conducting education and outreach with the community (EIH, GBF, and TMMSN), and broader non-profit/academic groups focused on conducting research to inform responsible conservation management decisions (NMMF, UNT, and St Andrews). 

Here, we include a list of "End Users" (and their current affiliations) from our scoping and design phases of the project. We anticipate that these individuals would remain important stakeholders in our proposed work.

Our data management plan is based on other plans in place for several ongoing or completed collaborative projects between NMMF and NOAA (and therefore can be efficiently performed in parallel with those established processes and protocols). Whenever possible, we would use open-standard formats and methods to store, process, and share our data. We expect four main types of data to come out of the project:

1.     Photographs and datasheets recording dolphin locations and observations during boat-based CMR and biopsy field surveys

2.     PCB, dioxin, and cell culture laboratory results

3.     DNA sequencing and methylation results, and

4.     Model outputs.

Examples of each of these data types, as collected and shared by many members of our project team, are currently publicly available via online web portals or available upon request for NMFS scientific research permit holders. Survey data and photographs would be stored, processed, and shared according to established protocols for photo-identification studies, using the open-access software packages finFindR and FinBase. The results would be shared with the Gulf of Mexico Dolphin Identification System (GoMDIS): a repository for groups throughout the Gulf of Mexico operating under NOAA NMFS scientific research permits. Analytical chemistry and laboratory toxicity experimental data would be uploaded to NOAA’s Data Integration Visualization Exploration and Reporting (DIVER) database, which hosts NRDA-related response, assessment, and restoration data, including the DWH toxicity dashboard. NRDA decision makers can use this tool to access data, compare data with other projects, and make data available to the public. Epigenetic data would be uploaded to the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s Gene Expression Omnibus (NCBI GEO) database, a public, widely-used repository for high-throughput genomics data. Finally, R code and output for our modeling efforts would be provided directly to our NOAA resource manager partners, and will also be hosted on the widely-used GitHub platform.

GoMDIS is not open to the public; its primary use is for dolphin researchers to be able to compare catalogs and animals for scientific collaboration. The data could be used to identify home ranges for individual dolphins, potentially putting living dolphins at risk. However, our project team has worked with other funding agencies in the past to develop datasets that reduce this type of risk to individual or populations of dolphins, but still provides data for the public to use to answer important questions. We could work with NOAA NCEI or other repositories to host ‘safe’ versions of the data. Any data not archived at NCEI would have appropriate data documentation (to facilitate discovery, use, and understanding) consistent with formats required by the data access provider. We would also ensure that all sub-contracts with our partners include 1) language that ensures they accept this data management/sharing plan, including open data licenses for data and metadata and 2) time/budget for data management and archival preparations.

We are also deeply involved with the development of marine mammal-specific data repositories currently underway (e.g., CETACEAN), and we would take advantage of any opportunity to integrate with these new undertakings, if appropriate. All of our proposed repositories have long-term storage capabilities, as well as the ability to provide access to the data for the general public or the scientific community (as appropriate). 

Dr. Takeshita would serve as the project Data Manager who would be responsible for the identifying, organizing, documenting, and storing of project data, all in a manner to facilitate data submission to the repositories listed above. The Data Manager would work closely with the project team to adhere to the data management practices required for the selected repositories and submit the datasets. Members of our project team have submitted these types of data to these databases in the past (including for the rigorous demands for the DWH NRDA), and we are familiar with the specific metadata needs and data formats implemented in both systems.

For example, for data submitted to DIVER, we would use the ISO 19115-2 or FGDC CSDGM metadata standards, as appropriate, or we would work with DIVER managers (as we have in the past) to address unique scenarios. Our colleagues at NOAA OR&R have an established, deep working relationship with the NOAA DIVER team, due to the NRDA support provided by the repository.

All data would be uploaded within six months of final QA/QC. The final volume of data would be manageable and reasonable—likely under 1 terabyte. We expect our data to be in widely standard formats (e.g., xls, csv, doc, pdf, jpg, gif, R, Rdata, Rmd), and we have experience working with collaborative teams to make each type of file consistent across the project. For example, we require all QA/QC’d Excel workbooks to include a Read.me tab that describes the purpose of the file and includes metadata to define each column.

NMMF would ensure that two backup data archival systems are in place: 1) we would use Google Drive as our collaborative space for our partners to share and access QA/QC’d data, and 2) NMMF would keep a backup of our project Google Drive directory on one of our local servers. We would also ask each of our collaborators to keep local copies of their raw and QA/QC’d data on their institutions’ machines.

In total, we estimate that the work proposed in this Research and Development Plan could be conducted with a budget of approximately $2 million. This includes funds for a multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary team of scientists and resource managers, including funds for NOAA partners to travel to team meetings and for data management services.

The primary potential source of funding for this Research and Development Plan is the next NOAA RESTORE Science Program FFO-2023 Actionable Science funding opportunity.

If we are unable to secure funding through the NOAA RESTORE FFO-2023 funding opportunity, then we will revise this Research and Development Plan later in 2023 to update any new information and to identify additional potential sources of funding.

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