SAI-P: Developing Long-Term Socio-Technical Research Programs with Electric Cooperatives

加强美国基础设施（SAI）是美国国家科学基金会的一个项目，旨在促进以人为本的基础研究和潜在的变革性研究，以加强美国的基础设施。有效的基础设施为社会经济活力和广泛的生活质量改善提供了坚实的基础。强大、可靠和有效的基础设施刺激私营部门的创新，发展经济，创造就业机会，使公共部门提供的服务更有效率，加强社区，促进机会平等，保护自然环境，加强国家安全，并推动美国的领导地位。为了实现这些目标，需要来自科学和工程学科的专业知识。SAI侧重于人类推理和决策、治理以及社会和文化过程的知识如何使有效的基础设施的建设和维护能够改善生活和社会，并以技术和工程的进步为基础。美国的大部分电力是由大型公用事业公司输送的。但有相当一部分人口是由电力合作社服务的，主要是在农村地区。这些都是社区拥有和管理的电力公司，它们在自我管理方面表现出了巨大的创新。电力合作社建立了分布式资源组合，实现了范围经济。然而，他们现在正在寻求调整自己的电网，以适应一个集中化程度较低的化石燃料发电和更多脱碳和电气化的分布式能源资源的世界。随着社会对新技术、组织能力和商业实践的需求从化石燃料燃烧过渡到更清洁的电力终端用途，电力合作社面临着巨大的适应压力。该SAI规划项目在大学研究人员、赠地大学推广服务和农村电力合作社之间建立了新的、更深层次的能力建设伙伴关系，以实现研究到行动的计划。其目的是推进农村能源转型的集体创新和管理，同时提高农村社区的生活质量。农村电力合作社维持着相互关联的社会技术基础设施系统，包括相互关联的有形电力系统资产和围绕其有形基础设施的社会治理系统和机构。本项目旨在建立识别、管理和创新农村电力合作社有形和社会基础设施系统动态的能力。该项目的目标是建立一种“长期社会技术研究”（LTSTR）项目模式，在这种模式下，当地跨学科研究人员、推广服务机构和农村电力合作社为知识转化为行动的项目、提高社区利益相关者的参与和以消费者为中心的持久能源转型建立持久的伙伴关系。本项目旨在了解长期大学-公用事业合作伙伴关系的有效模式，并制定战略，随着时间的推移加强这些伙伴关系对农村社区活力的影响。LTSTR项目提供了一个平台，促进由研究人员和学生主导的短期项目，并提供培训，支持农村社区实现脱碳和电气化的未来。在与公用事业和社区合作伙伴的合作下，这个SAI规划项目建立了一个战略，用于在美国各地的不同背景下扩展和正规化参与研究方法。该奖项由社会、行为和经济科学理事会（SBE）支持。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

Strengthening American Infrastructure (SAI) is an NSF Program seeking to stimulate human-centered fundamental and potentially transformative research that strengthens America’s infrastructure. Effective infrastructure provides a strong foundation for socioeconomic vitality and broad quality of life improvement. Strong, reliable, and effective infrastructure spurs private-sector innovation, grows the economy, creates jobs, makes public-sector service provision more efficient, strengthens communities, promotes equal opportunity, protects the natural environment, enhances national security, and fuels American leadership. To achieve these goals requires expertise from across the science and engineering disciplines. SAI focuses on how knowledge of human reasoning and decision-making, governance, and social and cultural processes enables the building and maintenance of effective infrastructure that improves lives and society and builds on advances in technology and engineering.Most electricity in the United States is delivered by large utilities. But a significant segment of the population is served by electric cooperatives, mostly in rural areas. These are community-owned and community-managed electric utilities that have shown great innovation in their self-governance. Electric cooperatives have built portfolios of distributed resources that achieve economies of scope. Yet they are now seeking to adapt their electric grids to a world with less centralized fossil-fueled generation and more decarbonized and electrified distributed energy resources. With societal demands for new technologies, organizational competencies, and business practices to transition from fossil fuel combustion to cleaner electric end uses, electric cooperatives are facing intense pressure to adapt. This SAI planning project builds new and deeper capacity-building partnerships between university researchers, land grant university extension services, and rural electric cooperatives for research-to-action programs. The aim is to advance the collective innovation and management of rural energy transitions while improving the quality of life for rural communities.Rural electric cooperatives maintain coupled socio-technical infrastructure systems consisting of connected physical electricity-system assets and social systems of governance and institutions surrounding their physical infrastructure. This project builds capacity to identify, manage, and innovate around the dynamics of the physical and social infrastructure systems of rural electric cooperatives. The goal of this project is to establish a model of “Long-Term Socio-Technical Research” (LTSTR) programs wherein locally situated interdisciplinary researchers, extension services, and rural electric cooperatives build durable partnerships for knowledge-to-action programs, elevation of community stakeholder participation, and durable consumer-centric energy transitions. This project seeks to understand effective models for long-term university-cooperative utility partnerships and develop strategies for strengthening the impact of these partnerships on rural community vitality over time. LTSTR programs provide a platform to facilitate short-term researcher- and student-led projects, along with training to support a decarbonized and electrified future with rural communities. In partnership with utility and community partners, this SAI planning project builds a strategy for expanding and formalizing engaged research methods in diverse contexts across the United States.This award is supported by the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Sciences.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.