Track 1: Center for Collective Impact in Earthquake Science (C-CIES): Building Inclusive Excellence, Diversity, Equity, and Community into Earthquake Science

This project will develop the Center for Collective Impact in Earthquake Science, which has the vision to become a leading-edge earthquake research center dedicated to improving resiliency from seismic hazards in an equitable, accessible, and sustainable manner. The mission will be to advance earthquake science with the aim of meeting the natural hazard mitigation needs of all communities in regions of low probability, high impact earthquake risk.

Low probability disasters tend to have an oversized impact on local communities. Additionally, even small- to moderate-magnitude human-made (induced) earthquakes induced by anthropogenetic activities have resulted in heightened public awareness, damages to the built environment, and the shutting-down of economic and energy infrastructure. Low probability, high impact earthquakes sometimes occur in places not easily identified by the theory of plate tectonics and typically present unique challenges to understanding how communities respond to risks from these earthquakes.

By studying low probability, high impact earthquakes, including induced events, the project will develop strategies for better identifying and potentially quantifying seismic hazards, plus inform many aspects of fundamental earthquake science of broad importance. The goals of the center will be to: 1) Advance basic earthquake science and engineering; 2) Establish a foundation for sharing, value-driven understanding of science; 3) Be responsive to the needs of all kinds of communities through use-inspired research; 4) Recruit, retain, and train the next generation of diverse earth scientists; and 5) Develop a framework for impactful geoscience that translates results of scientific discovery into actions that can improve resilience and reduce risk from seismic hazards.

To achieve these goals requires an innovative and robust research plan that incorporates community engagement. The project will adopt the collective impact model for establishing this center, which develops a network of community members, organizations, and institutions through the development of a common agenda, centralized support, continuous communication, mutually reinforcing activities, and shared measurement.

The center will emphasize research with potential to respond to the needs of vulnerable populations that have been historically underserved by current earthquake science, engineering, and public policy. The investigators will solicit pilot projects and use them these pilot projects to establish mechanisms for increasing partnership and for evaluation of the proposals.

Using these pilot projects as case studies, a strategic plan we will be developed on how to structure the center. All projects will begin as pilot projects, be evaluated and given feedback, and then transition to a full project when the center is fully funded. In this fashion, the project can guarantee that the full-scale projects meet the goals of the center prior to implementation.

Each project must include four elements: 1) the basic science question that must align with the research themes discussed above, 2) the use-inspired research where results may lead to implementation of practical solutions for the community, 3) the social impact of the project, and 4) the community engagement. The pilot projects will be designed to address key science challenges and reach deep into the communities that they will impact.

Our initial projects may include projects on 1) investigating earthquake risk in under-resourced communities, 2) using citizen science to understand the earthquake hazard in New England, 3) developing new techniques to get more information out of seismic data, 4) refining the earthquake hazard in a vulnerable, bi-national, multi-lingual community (El Paso, TX), and 5) using crowdsourcing to help with cataloging vulnerable buildings. Priority will be given to projects that engage low-resourced communities (such as small rural towns) or historically marginalized populations (such as low-income or immigrant populations).

Second, pilot projects will be asked to include an element of workforce development, particularly of those who are historically under-represented in geosciences. Third, pilot projects will be asked to articulate their contributions towards promoting interdisciplinary research or practice. Fourth, full center projects will be asked to fund graduate and/or undergraduate students and provide opportunities for students to be cross trained between projects.

By adopting collective impact as a guiding principle for the center along with funding pilot projects, the center will, by necessity, make Inclusive Excellence, Diversity, Equity, and Community a fundamental principle of the center.

This award is supported by the Division of Earth Sciences and the Geoscience Opportunities for Leadership in Diversity (GOLD-EN) in the Directorate for Geosciences.

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.