NSF Engines Development Award: Leveraging innovations for water and energy security (NM, TX)

该区域创新引擎发展奖旨在设计一个创新生态系统，在清洁水和清洁能源的关系中产生弹性和可持续的解决方案。水资源短缺是美国西南部面临的决定性挑战，而在全球范围内，旱地覆盖了41%的陆地表面，支撑着38%的人口。水就是生命，拟议中的地区（包括纳瓦霍族、新墨西哥州和德克萨斯州西部）是全国家庭用水不安全程度最高的地区。大约三分之一的纳瓦霍家庭和墨西哥边境附近的数十个社区缺乏自来水或适当的卫生设施。在区域范围内，约78%的人依赖地下水作为饮用水，但大量的水供应未经处理就无法使用，包括盐水和工业，农业和军事设施污染的水。获得清洁水需要运输、管道、泵送和清洁水的能源。通过创新缩小区域清洁能源潜力与满足区域清洁水需求的实际能力之间的巨大差距，还将通过发展广泛和高技能的劳动力来解决经济和气候需求，同时向该地区过渡到清洁能源。该项目团队将与服务不足的社区共同创造解决方案，并将土著知识与整体方法相结合，这将导致技术的发明和商业化，最大限度地提高复原力，并为每个水龙头带来清洁水，为每个门提供脱碳电力，以及多样化，包容性，拟议的创新生态系统代表了2年和4年制高等教育机构，国家实验室，社区团体，政府组织，以及营利性和非营利公司在一个特殊的文化多样性的地区，48%的确定为西班牙裔和10%的美洲原住民在23个部落。该地区的社区经历了严重的经济困境，超过了全国13%的贫困人口平均水平，新墨西哥州和埃尔帕索县的贫困人口比例约为19%，纳瓦霍族的贫困人口比例高达33%。为了帮助社区摆脱贫困并启动基本基础设施的发展，项目活动是围绕社区参与的综合项目设计的，这些项目强调区域战略经济发展的必要性：与集体、代表性生态系统中的利益攸关方保持一致，扩大农村和部落社区技术经济发展举措的能力，为实现可再生能源转型和解决水资源短缺问题培养熟练劳动力，并在行业和技术专家之间建立新的桥梁。社区参与工作将包括由部落领导的“学习图尔斯之旅”，以帮助生态系统成员将土著观点和知识融入所有清洁水和清洁能源项目。受气候变化启发的研究工作将为四个主题的综合水/能源弹性测试平台网络制定计划：清洁水，清洁能源，综合水/能源弹性，以及非常规水资源的地图模型。劳动力发展工作将通过共享的综合培训方案加强社区学院联盟，并将通过建立为满足不同社区独特文化需求而量身定制的方案来扩大创业精神，确保包容性和相关性。该开发奖将使该团队能够参与区域性的协作规划过程，以准备未来的发动机来实现上述目标。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 Regional Innovation Engines Development Award aims to design an innovation ecosystem producing resilient and sustainable solutions at the nexus of clean water and clean energy. Water scarcity is the defining challenge in the southwestern US, and globally, drylands cover 41% of the land surface, supporting 38% of the human population. Water is life, and the proposed region (encompassing the Navajo Nation, New Mexico, and far west Texas) has the highest household water insecurity in the nation. Approximately one-third of all Navajo families and dozens of communities near the Mexico border lack piped water or adequate sanitation. Regionally, ~78% of people rely on groundwater for drinking water, but large supplies of water are unusable without treatment, including saline water and water contaminated by industry, agriculture, and military facilities. Gaining access to clean water requires energy for hauling, piping, pumping, and cleaning it. Innovation closing the large gap between the regional potential for clean energy and the realized capacity to meet regional needs for clean water will also address economic and climate needs by developing a broad and highly skilled workforce while transitioning to the region to clean energy. The project team will co-create solutions with underserved communities and incorporate indigenous knowledge with a holistic approach that will lead the invention and commercialization of technologies that maximize resilience and bring clean water to every tap, decarbonized power to every door, and a diverse, inclusive, and vibrant economy to the region.The proposed innovation ecosystem represents a partnership of 2- and 4-year higher education institutions, national laboratories, community groups, government organizations, and both for-profit and non-profit companies in a region of exceptional cultural diversity with 48% identifying as Hispanic and 10% as Native American across 23 tribes. Communities in the region experience high economic distress, exceeding the national average of 13% living in poverty, with New Mexico (NM) and El Paso County at ~19%, and Navajo Nation at a staggering 33%. To help lift communities out of poverty and launch development of essential infrastructure, project activities are designed around holistic community-engaged projects that emphasize regional strategic economic development imperatives: alignment with stakeholders in a collective, representative ecosystem, expanded capacity for techno-economic development initiatives in rural and tribal communities, preparation of a skilled workforce to enable renewable energy transitions and solutions to water scarcity, and new bridges between industry and technological experts. Community engagement efforts will include Tribal led “learning tours” to help ecosystem members integrate Native perspectives and knowledge into all clean water and clean energy projects. Use-inspired research efforts will develop plans for a network of integrated water/energy resilience testbeds for four topics: clean water, clean energy, integrated water/energy resilience, and maps & models of unconventional water resources. Workforce development efforts will strengthen the coalition of community colleges through shared comprehensive training programs, and entrepreneurship will be expanded by building upon programs that are tailored to meet the unique cultural needs of different communities, ensuring inclusivity and relevance. This Development Award will enable the team to engage in a regional, collaborative planning process to prepare a future Engine to meet the above goals.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.