GCR: Convergence for Innovative Energy Solutions: Empowering Off-Grid Communities with Sustainable Energy Technologies

这个GCR项目汇集了传播研究，社会科学和工程方面的专家团队，以新的参与形式与利益相关者合作，共同设计和实施可持续能源技术。 我们的目标是为能源过于昂贵或不可靠的社区提供科学和技术的变革性进步。这是一个重大挑战，特别是在没有电网的社区。 采用创新的一个关键因素是技术与该社会体系中人们的价值观、信仰和过去经验的兼容性。 该项目的重点将是一种新的技术解决方案，采用没有水坝的河流涡轮机，使鱼类和船只能够自由移动，使渔民能够维持生计，并消除重新安置的必要性。该项目包括对学生进行趋同研究方面的培训，并制作一份视听记录，供进一步分析和用于教学。一个新的研究生课程，关于如何去建立融合，互动和共同设计新技术，以满足特定社区的需求将被开发作为一个双博士课程的一部分，工程，社会科学和自然科学的学生。这个研究小组将在-通过科学家和需要可持续和负担得起的能源形式的社区的利益攸关方之间的集中对话，开发蒸汽涡轮机。创建这种融合模型需要来自工程，通信研究和社会科学的学者共同努力，以发现这些解决方案获得社会认可可能需要对工程进行哪些修改。为此，研究人员将以融合的方式工作，以确保创新的离网能源解决方案的规模合适，为这些社区所接受，并可持续发展。这项工作将建立在关于创新传播的文献基础上，创新传播是一个过程，在这个过程中，通过各种渠道在社会系统的成员之间传播关于新思想的信息，通过趋同过程促进知识。研究人员将确定各种沟通过程在多大程度上影响社会对赋予当地社区权力的技术创新的接受程度。然后，他们将推出一个原型，并与社区合作，以提高该技术的特点，以进一步适应社区的能源需求。除了能源解决方案之外，该模型还可以为其他有兴趣开发创新解决方案的部门提供模板，并得到利益相关者的持续投入。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This GCR project brings together a team of experts in communication studies, social sciences and engineering working with stakeholders in a new form of engagement to jointly design and implement sustainable energy technologies. The goal is to deliver transformative advances in science and technology to communities where energy is too expensive or unreliable. This is a major challenge particularly in communities in that are off-the-grid. A crucial factor for innovation adoption is compatibility of the technology with the values, beliefs, and past experiences of people in that social system. The focus of this project will be on a new technological solution, employing in-stream turbines without dams, that permit fish and vessels to move freely, allow fishers to maintain their livelihoods, and eliminate the need for resettlement. The project includes the training of students in convergence research and the production of an audiovisual record for further analysis and use in teaching. A new graduate course on how to go about building convergence, interacting, and co-designing new technology to meet the needs of specific communities will be developed as part of a dual PhD program for engineering, social science and natural science students.This team of researchers will produce a prototype in-stream turbine through a convergent dialogue between scientists and stakeholders in communities that need sustainable and affordable forms of energy. Creating this convergence model requires that scholars from engineering, communication studies and social sciences work together to discover what modifications in the engineering may be necessary for these solutions to gain social acceptance. To that end, the researchers will work in a convergent manner to ensure that innovative off-the-grid energy solutions are right-sized, embraced by, and sustainable for those communities. This work will build on the literature on diffusion of innovations, the process by which information about a new idea is communicated through various channels among members of a social system through convergence processes to advance knowledge. The researchers will determine the extent to which various communication processes operate to influence social acceptance of a technological innovation that empowers local communities. They will then introduce a prototype and work with communities to enhance the characteristics of the technology to further adapt it to community energy needs. Beyond energy solutions, this model can provide a template for other sectors interested in developing innovative solutions with sustained input from stakeholders.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.