This grant provides two years of operational support for the operation and enhancement of microbe.net, a website that provides services to the diverse community of researchers working at the intersection of microbiology and the built environment. Over the next two years, a team led by Jonathan Eisen at the University of California, Davis, plan to sustain the role of microBEnet as a critical hub for the field; develop and disseminate education, training, and outreach materials that will help sustain the MoBE field; build partnerships around key reference data sets in order to attract new methods, investigators, and collaborations in the field; develop synergistic interactions with other MoBE projects; and move microBEnet toward independent, long-term sustainability. The work plan includes further expansion of the network of site contributors and users. Eisen also plans to develop MoBE course materials; collect and post MoBE research protocols, conference reports, and unpublished white papers; support the addition of a MoBE component to existing Citizen Science projects; and encourage community members to curate Wikipedia pages on MoBE topics. In addition, Eisen plans to continue sequencing efforts to leverage reference datasets (genomes, metagenomics, and 16S rRNA surveys) to draw in new people to the field.