Implementation grant: Community Resilience integrated into an Earth System Science Learning Ecosystem (CRESSLE)

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).

Project CRESSLE, Community Resilience integrated into an Earth System Science Learning Ecosystem, will partner University of Texas (UT) geoscience researchers and community members to create a learning environment that is welcoming to researchers, underserved and under-resourced community members, and students while supporting close collaboration on research using Earth System Science in service of communities. Our ecosystem integrates theory and successful practice with four integrated strategies: 1) Discovery Research, to assess assets and needs in both underserved communities and UT geoscientists, 2) a Community of Practice, joining UT and underserved communities in cohorts to address issues around four research themes (Water Resources, Climate Resilience, Land Use and Air Quality), 3) advancement of our successful Scientist in Residence program to train and inspire early career researchers, and 4) development of Informal Geoscience Learning experiences co-designed by the cohorts.

These four strategies will build a rigorous and inclusive Participatory Research (PR) program facilitated by the Community of Practice that will co-design and co-produce research to address community resilience and sustainability challenges, centered on Environmental Justice.

We apply a PR approach to long-standing institutional, cultural, and scientific challenges to the resilience and sustainability of communities facing impacts on the natural resources of water, climate, land use and air quality. Based on the successes of PR in other disciplines, CRESSLE will test the idea that PR integrating our four strategies and applying geoscience to address environmental resilience can produce four key outcomes: 1) increase engagement of underserved persons in geoscience careers; 2) increase research productivity and career pathways for early career geoscientists; 3) produce enduring university-community partnerships, and 4) help understand environmental justice problems and potential solutions on the neighborhood scale.

For Project CRESSLE, the team identified communities that are economically disadvantaged and overburdened by pollution and under investment in housing, transportation, water and wastewater infrastructure, and healthcare. These neighborhoods have been subject to disproportionate environmental impacts. Further, university researchers conducting research projects have not fully engaged the stakeholders who were affected by the research.

We propose that CRESSLE will transform the culture of the geoscience community and advance underserved and under-resourced communities' ability to address resilience issues using geoscience by including different perspectives in the geoscience workforce, building university community connections, and advancing methods for PR and informal geoscience learning experiences that engage and transform the STEM discipline of geoscience. We will develop a best practices model that will be disseminated locally and nationally and support career development of early-career researchers through PR opportunities, professional development training, and mentoring.

The goals of our career development and dissemination plan are to: 1) expand the implementation of our innovative approach to enhance engagement of underserved and under-resourced communities in geoscience PR, 2) gain institutional and community endorsement and private/corporate support for sustaining our efforts beyond NSF support; and 3) "normalize" CRESSLE activities as a step towards transforming the culture of the geoscience community.

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.