Conference: Community Recommendations for Advancing Geoscience Entrepreneurism

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.