The goals of this workshop are to guide research efforts in karst science over the next decade and to provide funding agencies with a voice from the karst community about what the critical research needs are.  This guidance will come from the workshop report, which will consist of a prioritized description of all research needs indentified and discussed at the workshop.  Because the report will reflect the makeup and interests of all workshop participants, it is critical to have broad participation from the karst community.  The report will describe linkages between individual topics specific to karst science and how karst science can inform other disciplines (e.g. paleoclimate and ecology).  The report will include brief review articles, to be written by breakout leaders, that describe the current state of knowledge of the various subdisciplines within the broadly defined field of karst science.  A rough draft of the report should be completed by the end of the workshop and will be edited, finalized and published within three months of the workshop.

The workshop report will be published in the Karst Waters Institute Special Publication series and will be disseminated widely throughout the karst community and to funding agencies.  Agencies to receive copies of the report include the sponsors of the workshop, the National Science Foundation (Hydrologic Sciences Division) and the Army Research Office.  Other agencies that support karst science and could be targeted to receive the report are the National Science Foundation (Paleoclimate Division), Department of Energy, American Chemical Society, and the Environmental Protection Agency.  Additional agencies may be included by suggestion from workshop participants.  Some time spent in plenary sessions will be allocated to identifying those agencies.

All workshop participants will receive a complimentary copy of the workshop report.