Conference: Community Recommendations for Advancing Geoscience Entrepreneurism

气候变化和环境退化威胁着每个人和地球。需要快速开发、测试和扩展最具创新性的解决方案，同时避免意想不到的后果。在与环境相关的领域，包括但不限于能源、生态系统/可持续性服务、清洁能源、排放检测和减少、碳抵消等领域，创业前景正在出现。然而，地球科学家在这方面明显缺乏。这不仅缩小了创新的整体范围，特别是对于一个对挑战如此重要的领域，还削弱了我们评估创新有效性的集体能力。为了发现阻碍地球科学创新和创业的障碍，拥有6万多名会员的最大的地球科学专业协会美国地球物理联合会（American Geophysical Union）将举办一系列虚拟活动，调查其遍布地球科学各个领域的会员。这项工作的更广泛影响包括揭示了培养大批地球企业家和创业公司创始人所需的激励措施、培训、机会和教育工具。努力将包括来自早期职业科学家和代表性不足群体成员的强有力代表。该专业协会将在其网站上公布他们的发现报告，并将在2023年12月的全国会议上召集一个小组讨论这些发现，并就增加地球科学教师及其学生的地球创业活动和思维方式的其他方法进行讨论。为了征求发展创业人才的意见，加快创新步伐，为社会和经济提供能源、环境和气候问题的创新解决方案，美国地球物理联盟（AGU）召集了来自地球创业生态系统的主要参与者，以确定接受过地球科学培训的潜在企业家可以采取的不同途径，以成功推出促进可持续、有弹性、以及包容性的未来。在地球科学社区的投入和地球创业专家指导委员会的指导下，AGU将提交一份报告，确定障碍，突出成功案例，并提供具体建议，以促进和扩大地球创业活动。该报告将为培养大学教师、学生和其他相关方的创业心态和机会奠定坚实的基础。这项工作将分为四个阶段：(1)确定关键利益相关者，采访地质企业家，并组建一个由8人组成的指导委员会来指导项目；(2)开展、发布和分析AGU与地缘创业社区的调查；(3)让五个虚拟焦点小组探讨调查结果确定的关键主题；(4)召开面对面的专家会议，制定最终报告和建议。为了协助这一进程，指导委员会将通过确定地球创业和创新领域的领导者、组织和利益相关者来指导整个项目。他们还将帮助制定调查和焦点小组问题。该委员会还将就如何分析焦点小组和调查产出提供重要投入，并将为最后报告提出建议。在2023年12月的AGU全国会议上，将吸引数万名与会者，将举行一个专家小组和讨论会，进一步吸引地球科学社区，并提出可能的方法，通过这些方法，他们可以积极参与创新生态系统，创建地理创业公司和商业企业，为紧迫的气候和环境问题提供解决方案。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。

Climate change and environmental degradation threaten everyone and the planet. There is a need to quickly develop, test, and scale the most innovative solutions while avoiding unintended consequences. An entrepreneurial landscape is emerging in areas related to the environment including, but not limited to, energy, ecosystem/sustainability services, clean energy, emissions detection and reduction, carbon offsets, etc. Geoscientists, however, are notably lacking in that landscape. This not only decreases the overall scope of innovation, especially for a field so central to the challenges, it also undermines our collective ability to assess the effectiveness of innovations. To discover the barriers to geo-innovation and entrepreneurship, the American Geophysical Union, the largest geoscience professional society, with over 60,000 members, will hold a series of virtual events to survey its membership that reaches across all fields of the geosciences. Broader Impacts of the work include uncovering the incentives, training, opportunities, and educational vehicles needed to create a large cohort of geo-entrepreneurs and startup founders. Efforts will include robust representation from early career scientists and members of underrepresented groups. The professional society will make public the report of their findings by posting it on their website and will convene a panel at their December 2023 national meeting to discuss the findings and generate discussion on additional means of increasing geo-entrepreneurial activities and mindsets among geoscience faculty and their students.To solicit ideas on developing entrepreneurial talent and speed the pace of innovation and delivery of innovative solutions on energy, environmental, and climate issues to society and the economy, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) is convening key players from across the geo-entrepreneurship ecosystem to identify different pathways that potential entrepreneurs with geoscience training can take to successfully launch products and services that advance sustainable, resilient, and inclusive futures. With input from the geoscience community and guidance from a steering committee of geo-entrepreneurial experts, AGU will deliver a report that identifies barriers, highlights successes, and offers concrete recommendations to spur and scale geo-entrepreneurial activity. The report will set a solid foundation for developing an entrepreneurial mindset in, and opportunities for, university faculty, students, and other interested parties. The work will involve four phases: (1) identifying key stakeholders and interviewing geo-entrepreneurs as well as forming an 8-member steering committee to guide the project; (2) developing, distributing, and analyzing a survey of the AGU and geo-entrepreneurial community; (3) engaging five virtual focus groups to explore key themes identified by the survey results; and (4) convening an in-person meeting of experts to develop a final report and recommendations. To assist in this process, the steering committee will guide the overall project by identifying leaders, organizations, and stakeholders in geo-entrepreneurship and innovation. They will also help to develop the survey and focus group questions. This committee will also provide critical input on how focus group and survey outputs are analyzed and will shape recommendations for the final report. At the December 2023 AGU national meeting that attracts tens of thousands of attendees, a panel of experts and discussion session will be held to further engage geoscience communities and present possible means by which they can be active in innovation ecosystems and in the creation of geo-founded startups and commercial ventures providing solutions to pressing climate and environmental problems.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.