Implementation grant: Community Resilience integrated into an Earth System Science Learning Ecosystem (CRESSLE)

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Project CRESSLE, Community Resilience integrated into an Earth System Science Learning Ecosystem, will partner University of Texas (UT) geoscience researchers and community members to create a learning environment that is welcoming to marginalized and minoritized (MMG) researchers, community members, and students while supporting close collaboration on research using Earth System Science in service of communities. This ecosystem integrates theory and successful practice with four integrated strategies: 1) Discovery Research, to assess assets and needs in both MMG communities and UT geoscientists, 2) a Community of Practice, joining UT and MMG communities in cohorts to address issues around three research themes (Water Resources, Climate Resilience, and Communities & Landscapes), 3) advancement of the successful Scientist in Residence program to train and inspire early career researchers, and 4) development of Informal Geoscience Learning experiences co-designed by the cohorts. These four strategies will build a rigorous and inclusive Participatory Research (PR) program facilitated by the Community of Practice that will co-design and co-produce research to address community resilience and sustainability challenges, centered on Environmental Justice. Project leaders apply a PR approach to long-standing institutional, cultural, and scientific challenges to the resilience and sustainability of communities facing impacts on the natural resources of water, climate, and landscapes. Based on the successes of PR in other disciplines, CRESSLE will test the idea that PR integrating the four strategies and applying geoscience to address environmental resilience can produce four key outcomes: 1) increase engagement of MMG persons in geoscience careers; 2) increase research productivity and career pathways for early career geoscientists; 3) produce enduring university-community partnerships, and 4) help understand environmental justice problems and potential solutions on the neighborhood scale.A long history of racially-biased institutional and cultural actions on national scales has led to underrepresentation of MMG groups in the discipline of geoscience/Earth System Science. Over the same period, a history of racially-biased community and city planning in Austin, TX led to the segregation of MMG groups into neighborhoods that have been subject to disproportionate environmental impacts. Project leaders argue that CRESSLE will transform the culture of the geoscience community and advance MMG communities’ ability to address resilience issues using geoscience by increasing the diversity of the geoscience workforce, building university-MMG community connections, and advancing methods for PR and informal geoscience learning experiences that engage and transform the STEM discipline of geoscience. Project leaders will develop a best practices model that will be disseminated locally and nationally and support career development of early-career MMG researchers through PR opportunities, professional development training, and mentoring. The goals of the career development and dissemination plan are to: 1) expand the implementation of the innovative approach to enhance engagement of MMG communities in geoscience PR, 2) gain institutional and community endorsement and private/corporate support for sustaining efforts beyond NSF support; and 3) ‘normalize’ CRESSLE activities as a step towards transforming the culture of the geoscience community.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.