BIOLOGICAL and CULTURAL
DIVERSITY of the TROPICS:
extraordinary opportunities and challenges
in the midst of the Anthropocene

Strategic Plan 2019-2024

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), in the Republic of Panama,
has its roots in the Smithsonian 1910-1912 Panama Biological Survey. STRI scientists
now build on an unparalleled 100+ year record of terrestrial, marine, archaeological andenvironmental research. Our studies of marine and terrestrial paleontology and modern
fauna and flora represent our great strengths, with each scientific area providing insightsthat inform the others for the benefit of humanity.
STRI benefits from a collaborative diplomatic agreement with the Republic of Panama
and is privileged to serve as custodian of the Barro Colorado Nature Monument on behalfof the Republic of Panama, the international community and future generations. We willcelebrate the 100th anniversary of the research station there in 2023. In 2018, we began
our role as legal owner and custodian of Coibita Island in the Gulf of Chiriqui, significantly
expanding our geographic reach and research capabilities.
We provide modern facilities and research instrumentation for our scientists, bringing
the latest technological breakthroughs to tropical forests and reefs. We sustain researchover time to reveal long-term ecological patterns and understanding.
We partner with other Smithsonian units, diverse US government agencies, research
institutions and universities in Panama and around the world to advance our mission
while setting our sights on the scientific and environmental challenges anticipated in the
21st century.
This strategic plan describes those challenges and how we intend to address them as we
expand our capabilities and ensure long term sustainability for our planet.

M.C. Larsen,
Director

W.T. Wcislo,

Science Advisor to the Director

Smithsonian Tropical Research InstituteRepublic of Panama

2WHO WE ARE
Earth remains a little-known planet. For numerous species—especially microbes andtiny invertebrates—we are still in the discovery phase. Millions of species are unnamed
and many more have never been studied. Tropical forests host roughly half of Earth’s
animal and plant species. A quarter of all marine organisms live on coral reefs. Yet thesehabitats cover only a small fraction of our planet’s surface. Tropical habitats provide
food, medicines and fuel for more than a billion people. These ecosystems are key
drivers in vital global-scale climate and hydrological cycles. Tropical environments havesustained rich indigenous cultures for thousands of years, generating socio-cultural
diversity that rivals other facets of biodiversity. The long-term sustainability of tropical
diversity is under significant threat.
The founders of what became the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI)
envisioned the tropics as an exquisite living laboratory for understanding the evolutionof life on Earth. The Isthmus of Panama bridged two continents three and a half million
years ago—opening the door to invading species from north and south—and it divided an
ocean in two—a geological wedge that led to environmental changes that drive the origin
and evolution of species. Nowhere else were two ideal natural experiments in ecology
and evolution set in motion in recent geological time.
Today these natural laboratories are home to STRI facilities with advanced scientificinstrumentation and sophisticated research infrastructure, enabling us to probe everdeeper to further refine our scientific knowledge. We aim to understand the rules oflife -- the organizing principles that govern how organisms, species, communities andecosystems are put together and change through time.
Our focus is expansive in scope and time, as many biological patterns reveal themselves
only after many years, including geological time, or over large spatial scales. Long-termand experimental studies provide critical information for understanding how marine
and terrestrial communities are assembled and function, at all levels of biologicalorganization, from charismatic mega-fauna and flora to insects and other invertebrates,on land and sea, down to the microbes—the fungi, bacteria and viruses—and how they
shape, and are shaped by, ecological processes.

3Our MISSIONThe Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), is dedicated to theincrease and diffusion of knowledge about the past, present and futureof tropical biodiversity and its relevance to human welfare.

Our PEOPLE
We provide a core group of resident staff scientists with outstanding
opportunities to pursue research in an open, collegial yet rigorous intellectual
environment. Their work is supported by hundreds of collaborators, including
fellows and interns who come from a quarter of all nations on Earth, and a
dedicated support staff.
Complementing our resident scientists, STRI hosts visiting scientists fromaround the world, from undergraduate assistants to senior researchers. Invited
Research Associates pursue independent long-term research at STRI and help
us train tomorrow’s leaders in tropical science.

We ARE PARTOf the bigger Smithsonian museum
and research complex and are
actively incorporating the Institution’s
strategic goals into our own.

Smithsonian Institution-wide goals:
1. Be One Smithsonian
2. Catalize new conversations

and address complex
challenges

3. Reach 1 billion people

a year with a “digital first”
strategyne Smithsonian

Greater Reach, Greater Relevance, Profound Impact

4. Understand and impact 21st

century audiences

5. Drive large, visionary,interdisciplinary researchand scholarly projects

6. Preserve our natural andcultural heritage
while optimizing our assets

7. Provide a nimble, costeffective, and responsive
administrative infrastructure
4Our VALUESThe 21st century is the age of biology. We aim for a comprehensive understandingof the patterns and processes that form life in the tropics, including the roles
played by humans in shaping, restoring, and maintaining these processes. We
produce new knowledge that can be used to devise ever-smarter solutions to ourmost pressing environmental challenges, and to better enable decision-makers
to make wise choices. We inspire citizens young and old to better understandand appreciate our natural world, thereby laying the foundation to conserve andsustain it.
• Excellence in science is the universal way of increasing
knowledge about our world. STRI aspires to hire the best
scientists from around the world, and to give them the freedom,
resources and scientific support to pursue long-term innovative
research programs.
• Enlightened risk-taking is essential as the results of scientificresearch are not predictable. Our willingness to take big bets andrisk failure often leads to spectacular scientific breakthroughs.
• Engagement with a rapidly changing world enables STRI to
provide policy-makers with scientific data and meaningfulinterpretation to make effective decisions on use andconservation of natural resources and the environment.
• Transparency, accountability, and integrity are central to a
public trust organization. This responsibility commits us to thehighest standards of transparency and accountability, using
measurable outcomes to support science in the most efficient
ways possible.
• Diversity lies at the heart of biology. Just as biodiversity helps
sustain robust and healthy ecosystems, cultural diversity sustains
a healthy and robust organization and community.

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OUR MAJOR CHALLENGES
Ours is a remarkable time for science! New technologies and new opportunities
offer almost infinite possibilities to pose new questions, yet the global scientificcommunity faces two major challenges:

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A mismatch between the geographic distribution of biodiversity
and research capacity.
Most of the world’s biodiversity is tropical while most centersof research excellence are in temperate-zone universities andinstitutions.This contrast hinders discovery, interpretation andunderstanding in science. STRI research and our location on theisthmus of Panama enables ever deeper understanding of the floraand fauna of the tropics.

Tropical ecosystems are under severe stress.
Intensification of land use leads to species and habitat loss, whilechanging climates are altering fundamental biological processes.
Invasive species and emergent infectious diseases compound thesestressors. STRI is uniquely positioned to provide decision makers withsolid, scientific data as they shape the future.

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THE WAY FORWARD:OUR STRATEGIC PRIORITIESThis strategic plan commits us to expand our scientific activities and intensify ourefforts in the face of extraordinary opportunities and challenges.
Our scientific goals leverage our strengths and align with two major objectivesof the United States’ National Science Agenda. In 2016 the National Science
Foundation identified understanding the rules of life as one of the significant grandchallenges for biology. What processes generate biological and anthropologicalform and function in changing environments, and what are the consequences?
These broad questions define the collective agenda of the STRI community.
Also in 2016, the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy announced
an initiative to advance our understanding of the roles played by microbes inmaintaining human health and ecosystem functions. This announcement included
work at STRI to understand the functional roles played by microbes in tropicalenvironments. With new genomic tools in hand, we are beginning to better
understand the microbial world.
In the next five years, we will generate an improved understanding of tropicalbiodiversity, and share our discoveries with our multiple audiences, to strengthen
the role of science in service to the natural environment.

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2
3
4
5
6

PRIORITY 1

Increase our efforts to discover and understand biological,
cultural and functional diversity in the tropics

PRIORITY 2Strengthen the role of science in service to the environment

PRIORITY 3

Support and mentor the next generation of scientists

PRIORITY 4

Communicate the beauty of nature and thrill of scientificdiscovery to the public

PRIORITY 5

Enhance operations and facilities in support of our mission

PRIORITY 6

Advance administrative process through technology andsimplification
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PRIORITY 1

Increase our efforts to discover and understand biological,
cultural and functional diversity in the tropics

Goal 1:
Seek answers to challenging,fundamental and intertwinedquestions relating to the
genomic, developmental,
physiological, behavioral,
ecological patterns andprocesses that drive theevolution of biological diversity,and associated environmental
conditions.

Goal 2:
Establish a living
laboratory in the Tropical
Eastern Pacific.

We aim to understand how local studies scale to the global tropics
by addressing key research questions:• What are the governing relationships between organisms

including humans, and their environments, from the ancient past
to the present?

• What processes generate and maintain biodiversity fromgenes to organisms?

• How is evolution affected by interactions with other species,

including humans?

• How can we better use our deep knowledge of biology andhuman ecology to develop smart solutions to environmental andecological challenges?

In 2018 STRI took possession of Coibita Island, giving us access to a newliving laboratory and basic research facilities. As part of a migratory
corridor for marine and avian species from North and South America,
Coibita is a strategic vantage point for studies of the Eastern Tropical
Pacific.
With two layers of legal protection as part of Panama’s Coiba National
Park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Coibita is an ideal location
to launch long-term research that will provide key insights in marine
biology. In the next five years we will:• Improve our existing field facility in Coibita. This development

represents a major step in completing our goal of two-ocean field
facilities, complementing our Caribbean research stations at
Galeta and Bocas del Toro in the Caribbean, and our Naos Marine
Laboratories in the Pacific.

• Aquire a research vessel to access marine ecosystems in thetwo oceans surrounding the Isthmus of Panama.

Goal 3:
Decipher the roles of humandiversity and culturalchange in shaping tropicalenvironments.

The tropics are hotspots for cultural diversity. Indigenous peoples, eachwith their own language, culture, belief systems and world-view, provide
differing perspectives on how humans modify and use their environment.
Pre-Columbian societies extensively modified the habitats and biota of
the Americas over the past 14,000 years, as they developed novel culturalideas and technologies, including large-scale and long-term infrastructure
for ever more complex societies, which flourished, vanished or mergedwith other societies.
• Continue efforts to strengthen our program in human ecology throughstaff additions, to better understand how pre- and post-Columbian
indigenous societies used their natural and cultural resources tomanage their world.

• Seek to better understand:- To what extent has past human activity shaped presentday tropical environments?
- What are the biological and cultural limits of landscapetransformation?

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PRIORITY 2Strengthen the role of science in service to the environment

Goal 1:
Provide accurate, timely andrelevant scientific data andunderstanding.

Goal 2:Develop more institutional
scientific partnerships.

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We aspire to provide the best empirical data possible for policyand decision-makers to remediate environmental damage, restore
ecosystems and better sustain the natural world for coming generations.

Advance our mission by expanding partnerships with fellow Smithsonian
units, diverse agencies in Panama and the United States, andcollaborating research institutions and universities from around theworld. Our current national partners include the National Secretariat for
Science, Technology and Innovation (SENACYT) and Institute of Scientific
Investigation and Technological Services (INDICASAT). We will strengtheninternational ties with institutions such as the Beijing Genomics Instituteamong other potential partners, including the numerous strategic
collaborators involved in ForestGEO.

PRIORITY 3

Support and mentor the next generation of scientists
STRI is dedicated to inspiring and training future generations of scientists.
Our resident scientists, interns, and research fellows represent our scientificfuture, enrich our community, and expand our reach.

Goal 1:
Scientific staffing

We must maintain our core of resident scientists and expand our staff
with new scientific positions.
• We will increase our resident, full-time, scientificstaff with five new hires by 2019.
• We will add at least three new staff scientists by 2024 via
philanthropic support for endowed chairs to expand our research
portfolio to advance exciting new frontiers.

Goal 2:
Post-doctoral fellowshipsupportPost-doctoral fellows enhance ongoing studies and advance our researchin emerging directions.
• We will increase fellowship support at all levels, from undergraduate
interns, to graduate students, to post-doctoral researchers.
• We will add five new postdoctoral fellowships by 2024.

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PRIORITY 4

Communicate the beauty of nature and thrill of scientificdiscovery to the public
Our scientists share a child’s sense of wonder. We aim to bring science to the people
by sharing our joy in experiencing a tropical forest or reef, and the thrill of newscientific discoveries.
We strive to nurture a sense of curiosity about the natural world, to inspire some tobecome scientists, others to work to conserve the spectacular diversity of life in thetropics, and for all to be part of an informed citizenry.

Goal 1:
Reach multiple, international
audiences through sophisticateddigital platforms and public
programs.

Goal 2:
Enhance local relevanceand visibility in Panama
through scientific themesof global importance.

• Engage STRI’s internal and external audiences – scientificcommunity, science and nature enthusiasts, youth, government
officials and potential donors – by continuously sharing ourdiscoveries and research processes through social media and our
new STRI web site.
• Facilitate outstanding science-based education and outreachprograms at our public program facilities in Punta Culebra, Galeta
Point, Barro Colorado Island and Bocas del Toro, including a major
revitalization at Punta Culebra.

STRI enjoys a long history of goodwill shown by the government and peopleof Panama, yet our extensive research documenting the natural andcultural history of Panama is not sufficiently known.
• Improve our communications strategy through proactiveplanning and exposure of scientific themes that highlight the wonder
and impact of our science, and its relevance to Panama and theworld.
• Design exhibits for public spaces, positioning STRI scientificfindings before multiple audiences in cultural, governmental, andbusiness venues across the country.

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PRIORITY 5

Enhance operations and facilities in support of our mission
In partnership with the Smithsonian Facilities office, we will enhance STRI facilities
to support advanced science collaboration and activities. We aim to refurbish andexpand the world’s best tropical research platform and increase the sustainability of
our operations.

Gamboa Laboratory

Our new laboratory in Gamboa is fully
operational. Complementing this facility, overthe next five years we will reconfigure two
existing structures into an ambient-temperaturelaboratory for experimental research, and aresidence for scientific visitors.

Earl S. Tupper Center

We will revitalize the Earl S. Tupper Center,
including the central courtyard in the Tupper
Plaza to better foster interactions within the
STRI community and with the public, convening
meetings, workshops, and celebratory events.
We will complete a safety and security upgrade.
Through a new a kinetic/optical sculpture by
world-renowned artist Carlos Cruz-Diez, we willbring artwork to a public space and recognize an
important historic site adjacent to our campus.

Barro Colorado Island

We will complete renovation project associatedwith the Panama Canal Expansion. STRI will also
make plans to celebrate 100 year anniversary in
2023.

Canopy Crane

STRI pioneered the use of construction cranes
as a research tool to study life in forest canopies.
We will replace our seasonally dry-forest cranein Parque Metropolitano.

Galeta Point Marine Laboratory

Coibita Island

We will upgrade our field station on Coibita Islandand establish baseline environmental monitoringand scientific research.

Research Vessel

STRI will determine specifications and obtainsupport for a research vessel to advance frontierresearch in the Tropical Eastern Pacific andbeyond.

Punta Culebra Nature Center

We will continue to significantly upgrade thePunta Culebra Nature Center in Panama City,
including a Discovery Center for schoolchildren,
improved aquaria and exhibits.

Naos Marine Laboratory

We will revitalize the Naos laboratories toimprove current facilities in support of STRI
Marine programs, and to provide state-of-the-art
infrastructure for the Molecular Biology program.
Included in the revitalization are new office andlaboratory spaces for our staff, and an improved
seawater system.

Bocas Del Toro Research Station

We continue to work in the upgrade of bothlaboratories and housing facilities to provide
better infrastructure for marine and terrestrial
research. We will renovate the old dorms andliving quarters, as well as some of the laboratory
spaces. We also seek to revitalize the dock spaceand boat house.

We will continue improvements to our Galeta
Point Marine Laboratory, to upgrade research,housing, and public-program facilities. We will
integrate activities at the San Lorenzo Canopy
Crane site with Galeta, so Galeta can serve asa base of operations for Caribbean research incentral Panama.

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PRIORITY 6

Streamline administrative process through technology
and simplification
We constantly consider new ways for advancing our administrative processes, and aim
to optimize workflow to further support our scientific research.

Finance andAdministration• Provide the Office of Human Resources state of the art technology
necessary to recruit, hire and support the best local talent for STRI.
This will be accomplished by acquiring and implementing Evolution, asoftware that handles payroll, recruitment and performance appraisal.
• Develop a common framework for Scientific Databases (DKAN).
• Support science by providing the permits office with technology thatenables processing and tracking permits automatically .
• Enh ance the scientific visitor experience at STRI by addressing theirneeds, to assure a pleasant and productive experience. Surveys will
be implemented at all sites to obtain feedback from scientific visitors
and respond to their recommendations. A tutorial will be designed andimplemented to facilitate the registration process for visitors.
• Provide the necessary technology to the accounting department
to move to a paperless process. This will support our mission of atransparent and effective accounting process that guarantees that thefunds provided are used in the most efficient way.

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KEY DELIVERABLES
Recruit and retain a talented anddiverse workforce from Panama
and around the world.

5 newRaise $4M annually andincrease financial stability
by growing private
funding streams.

staff scientists
by 2019

3 newtrust-funded staff
scientists by 2023

5 new

Post Doctoral
Fellows by 2023

Liaise with theSmithsonian
Institution toleverage digitalcommunication
resources.

@

“

i

Provide the mostadvanced research
instrumentation at
the edges of forests
and reefs.

400
Receive a minimum of 1,200
scientific visitors per year.

Stage one digital oritinerant exhibit per year.

$

Manage resources
efficiently,
transparently
and strategically.

Improve visitor experiences
at STRI facilities throughenhanced public programs.

Mentor and train the next
generation of scientists throughrobust academic programs.

stri.si.edu
Actively update informationon the new STRI web site witha new publication every two
weeks.

Publish a minimumof 400 articles in peer
reviewed scientificjournals per year.
13CONCLUSION
We live in a remarkable time for science. Research capabilities are advancing evermore rapidly, while environmental problems from population growth, resource
exploitation, and global change present us with increasing challenges. STRI is
located at the epicenter of many of these problems —the tropics— where half theworld’s population lives and where environmental degradation, including loss offorest cover and over-exploitation of marine resources is largely unchecked. As welose biodiversity around the world, and particularly in the tropics, we endanger the
future of our own species.
STRI enables ever deeper understanding of the environments that we humans
manage. If our species is to survive and flourish in the future, we must be better
stewards. This can only happen with science-based decision making derived fromknowledge. We encourage you to join us in our vital effort.

VISIT US @stri.si.edu

SmithsonianPanama

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