The RHIC Cold QCD Plan for 2017 to 2023: A Portal to the EIC

The next 6 years, the unique capabilities of RHIC and its detectors will expand even further with the construction of sPHENIX and the proposed STAR upgrades, especially in the forward direction. Precise measurements in protons and heavy ions collisions address not only the fundamental questions of QCD, but also the assumptions that have driven the advances in practical theoretical calculations. This leads to the possibility of testing universality, factorization and evolution for transverse momentum-dependent parton distribution functions and fragmentation functions. The pA measurements allow us to test nPDFs, FF and the transition into a saturated state if we go to forward rapidities. The current data have constrained the gluon and light sea quark PDFs and for the first time transverse momentum dependent PDFs and FF through pp data. A future Electron-Ion Collider is envisioned as the centerpiece for future nuclear physics research in the United States. I will discuss the plans for RHIC in the near future and it's relevance to the EIC program.