Twenty-one universities and institutions in the U.S. and Canada are developing plans for long-term research projects to help protect and restore the Great Lakes, project officials announce.

The Great Lakes Futures Project will begin with a series of papers describing factors that have affected the lakes over the past 50 years and those expected to have an effect in the next 50 years. Among them are invasive species, climate change, the economy and chemical pollution.

The studies are expected to help academic and government officials, business leaders and others answer big-picture questions such as how to manage watersheds.

The project also will produce scholarly and popular publications and conduct public events with schools and community groups.

Other U.S. institutions providing funding for the research include Michigan State Univ., Wayne State Univ. and Univ. at Buffalo in New York. Canadian institutions funding the work are Guelph Univ., McMaster Univ., Queens Univ., Trent Univ., Univ. of Toronto, Univ. of Windsor, Ryerson Univ., Waterloo Univ., Western Univ., York Univ., McGill Univ., Seneca College, Université de Montréal and the Université du Québec à Trois Rivière.

Funding also comes from the Group for Interuniversity Research in Limnology and Aquatic Environment, Michigan Sea Grant and New York Sea Grant.