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

SAI-P：与电力合作社共同开发长期社会技术研究项目

• 批准号: 2228307
• 负责人: Gabriel Chan
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-15 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2228307&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SAI; Developing; Long; Term; Socio

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.

加强美国基础设施(SAI)是一项NSF计划，旨在刺激以人类为中心的基础性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创新，增长经济，创造就业机会，提高公共部门服务提供效率，加强社区力量，促进机会均等，保护自然环境，增强国家安全，推动美国的领导地位。要实现这些目标，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能够建立和维护有效的基础设施，改善生活和社会，并建立在技术和工程进步的基础上。美国的大部分电力由大型公用事业公司提供。但很大一部分人口是由电力合作社提供服务的，主要是在农村地区。这些都是社区所有和社区管理的电力公用事业，在自治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，以适应这样一个世界：化石燃料发电的集中度较低，分布式能源的脱碳和电气化程度更高。随着社会对新技术、组织能力和商业实践从化石燃料燃烧向更清洁的电力终端用途过渡的需求，电力合作社正面临着适应的巨大压力。这个SAI规划项目在大学研究人员、土地赠与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，以实现研究转化为行动的计划。其目的是促进农村能源过渡的集体创新和管理，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耦合的社会-技术基础设施系统，包括相互连接的实物电力系统资产和社会治理系统以及围绕其有形基础设施的机构。该项目围绕农村电力合作社物质和社会基础设施系统的动态进行识别、管理和创新的能力建设。该项目的目标是建立一个“长期社会技术研究”(LTSTR)计划的模式，在该计划中，位于当地的跨学科研究人员、推广服务和农村电力合作社为知识到行动的计划、提高社区利益相关者的参与以及持久的以消费者为中心的能源过渡建立持久的合作伙伴关系。该项目旨在了解长期大学-合作公用事业伙伴关系的有效模式，并制定战略，以加强这些伙伴关系随着时间的推移对农村社区活力的影响。LTSTR项目提供了一个促进短期研究人员和学生主导的项目的平台，以及支持农村社区实现脱碳和电气化未来的培训。这个SAI规划项目与公用事业和社区合作伙伴合作，建立了一个在全美不同背景下扩展和正规化参与式研究方法的战略。该奖项得到了社会、行为和经济理事会(SBE)的支持。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。