Global Centers Track 2: Green Energy Transitions in the Far North (GET North)

从化石燃料向绿色能源的过渡要求能源的生产、传输和消费方式发生重大转变，这将促使原材料开采作业、劳动力招聘和基础设施发展发生同样巨大的变化，对环境和传统上将土地用于其他目的的土著居民产生重大影响。全球中心第二轨道设计奖北方绿色能源转型（GET-North）将一个多学科的跨国研究团队与阿拉斯加北部和瑞典北部两个地区的权利持有人和利益相关者联系起来，通过比较分析来研究如何最好地引导各自的绿色能源转型。虽然这些地区的治理结构和国家背景不同，但它们都具有人口长期下降的特点，区域经济主要以资源开采为导向，土地使用冲突使工业发展与传统的土著生活方式相冲突，以及气候寒冷的农村地区特有的基础设施挑战。该项目旨在开发跨学科合作的新模式，将研究人员和社区成员联系起来，并培养一批新的科学家和公民，使他们具备应对绿色能源转型带来的复杂社会问题所需的工具。GET-North对社会转型采取宏观方法，将技术创新、治理模式和环境变化结合起来，确定社区确定的优先事项，并制定应对共同挑战的适当解决方案，将正义置于所有分析的中心。通过有意识地与社区成员共同开展研究，该项目为未来的全球中心奠定了基础，以阐明平衡绿色能源在脱碳、创造就业机会、刺激新型制造业与环境和社会成本方面的好处。这个社区参与的、多机构的、跨国的项目将建立一个全球中心，致力于开展跨学科的、以使用为灵感的绿色能源转型研究，以确保其可持续和公正地发生。本项目采用比较和整体的方法，研究阿拉斯加和瑞典北部如何应对各自地区和国家经济脱碳所需的社会技术变革。瑞典北部和阿拉斯加面临着共同的气候和人口挑战，通过交流知识和社区主导的解决方案，将大规模转型的技术、治理、环境和社会影响联系起来，可以学到很多东西。GET-North通过与当地工业、政府和社区组织建立牢固的联系，同时加强瑞典和美国研究人员之间的跨学科联系，培养具有解决复杂社会问题技能的下一代研究人员，从而建立启动未来全球中心的能力。项目团队汇集了能源和系统工程师、地理学家、社会科学家、公共卫生专家、土著研究教师和艺术策展人，将广泛的社区联系网络与专业知识和知识相结合，以全面了解减缓气候变化所需的绿色能源转型。该奖项由全球中心项目资助，该项目是一个创新项目，支持以使用为灵感的研究，解决与气候变化和/或清洁能源相关的全球挑战。Track 2设计奖支持美国的研究人员将国际团队聚集在一起，开发研究问题和合作伙伴关系，进行景观分析，综合数据，和/或建立多方利益相关者网络，以推进他们未来更大规模的使用灵感研究。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。

Transitioning from fossil fuels to green energy requires a considerable shift in the way energy is generated, transmitted, and consumed, prompting similarly dramatic changes across raw mineral mining operations, labor force recruitment, and infrastructure development, with powerful implications for the environment and Indigenous populations who have traditionally used land for other purposes. The Global Centers Track 2 Design award Green Energy Transitions North (GET-North) connects a multidisciplinary, multinational team of researchers with rightsholders and stakeholders in two regions in the far north–Alaska and northern Sweden–to examine through comparative analysis how best to navigate their respective green energy transitions. While these regions’ governance structures and national contexts differ, both feature chronic population decline, regional economies oriented primarily around resource extraction, land-use conflicts pitting industrial development against traditional Indigenous lifestyles, and infrastructure challenges characteristic of rural regions with cold climates. This project seeks to develop new models of collaborating across academic disciplines, connecting researchers and community members, and training a new cohort of scientists and citizens with the tools required to grapple with the complex societal problems that the green energy transition imposes. GET-North takes a big-picture approach to societal transformation, integrating technological innovation, governance models, and environmental change to identify community-defined priorities and develop appropriate solutions to shared challenges, with justice at the center of all analyses. By consciously co-producing research with community members, the project builds a foundation for a future global center to illuminate ways of balancing the benefits of green energy in terms of decarbonization, jobs creation, and the stimulation of new types of manufacturing with the environmental and social costs. This community-engaged, multi-institutional, multinational project will develop the capacity to launch a Global Center devoted to conducting interdisciplinary, use-inspired research on green energy transitions with the goal of ensuring that they occur sustainably and justly. This project employs a comparative and holistic approach, examining how Alaska and northern Sweden grapple with the sociotechnical transformations required to decarbonize their respective regional and national economies. Sharing climatic and demographic challenges, northern Sweden and Alaska have much to learn from exchanging knowledge and community-led solutions that connect technological, governance, environmental, and social impacts of large-scale transitions. GET-North builds capacity to launch a future global center by developing strong connections with local industry, governments, and community organizations while strengthening cross-disciplinary ties among Swedish and U.S. researchers and training a future generation of researchers with the skills to address complex societal problems. The project team brings together energy and systems engineers, geographers, social scientists, public health specialists, Indigenous studies faculty, and arts curators, integrating an extensive network of community contacts with the expertise and knowledge to develop a comprehensive understanding of the green energy transitions needed to mitigate climate change. This award is funded by the Global Centers program, an innovative program that supports use-inspired research addressing global challenges related to climate change and/or clean energy. Track 2 design awards support U.S.-based researchers to bring together international teams to develop research questions and partnerships, conduct landscape analyses, synthesize data, and/or build multi-stakeholder networks to advance their use-inspired research at larger scale in the future.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.