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结合点产生具有弹性和可持续的解决方案。缺水是美国西南部的决定性挑战，在全球范围内，旱地覆盖了41%的陆地表面，养活了38%的人口。水就是生命，拟议中的地区(包括纳瓦霍民族、新墨西哥州和德克萨斯州的遥远西部)拥有全国最高的家庭用水不安全。在墨西哥边境附近，大约三分之一的纳瓦霍家庭和数十个社区缺乏自来水或适当的卫生设施。在地区范围内，约78%的人依赖地下水作为饮用水，但大量供水未经处理无法使用，包括咸水和被工业、农业和军事设施污染的水。要获得清洁的水，需要输送、管道、抽水和清洗的能量。创新缩小区域清洁能源潜力与已实现的满足区域对清洁水需求的能力之间的巨大差距，也将通过发展广泛和高技能的劳动力，同时向该区域过渡到清洁能源来满足经济和气候需求。该项目团队将与服务不足的社区共同创建解决方案，并将土著知识与整体方法相结合，以引领技术的发明和商业化，这些技术将最大限度地提高韧性，将清洁水带到每个水龙头，为每扇门提供脱碳电力，并为该地区带来多样化、包容性和充满活力的经济。拟议的创新生态系统代表着一个由两年和四年的高等教育机构、国家实验室、社区团体、政府组织以及营利性和非营利性公司组成的合作伙伴关系，该地区具有非凡的文化多样性，其中48%的人认为拉美裔，10%的人认为美国原住民来自23个部落。该地区的社区经历了严重的经济困难，超过了全国平均13%的贫困人口比例，新墨西哥州和埃尔帕索县的贫困人口比例约为19%，纳瓦霍民族的贫困人口比例高达惊人的33%。为帮助社区脱贫和启动发展基本基础设施，项目活动围绕社区参与的整体项目设计，强调区域战略经济发展的必要性：与集体、有代表性的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，培养熟练劳动力以实现可再生能源过渡和解决缺水问题，以及在工业和技术专家之间建立新的桥梁。社区参与的努力将包括部落领导的“学习之旅”，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。受使用启发的研究工作将为四个主题制定水/能源综合抗灾能力试验台网络的计划：清洁水、清洁能源、综合水/能源抗灾能力以及非常规水资源的地图和模型。劳动力发展努力将通过共享的综合培训计划加强社区学院的联盟，创业将通过建立根据不同社区的独特文化需求量身定做的计划来扩大，确保包容性和相关性。该发展奖将使团队能够参与地区性的合作规划过程，为实现上述目标准备未来的引擎。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.