Strategies to Improve Academic Research on Climate Solutions
The federal government needs a new strategy for funding of academic research on climate solutions
How can the academic research enterprise and federal funding programs ensure that academic research contributes to equitable and effective climate solutions?
In the US, the need to address complex societal problems, including national defense, post-industrial transition, environmental problems, and public health, has, at times, spurred public support for industry-specific, early-stage innovation investments. Climate change is a societal challenge that will impact every sector of the economy and society and which requires the government to be active in providing climate solutions. Climate change requires the government to adjust its relationship with universities and how research is done.
It is important to change the current strategy of federal funding of academic research because climate change is forcing us to address issues of inequality, distribution of resources, and opportunities in our standard of living in ways that are unique—or at least of a new order of magnitude—relative to past challenges we have faced, such as threats to public health or national security.
To get a better handle on the potential impact of federally funded academic research on climate solutions (ARCS), Second Nature partnered with the Energy Transition Institute of UMass Amherst to develop a systematic assessment of the current state of the field. The work was funded by the Sloan Foundation.
We examined 1,829 recent federal ARCS grants to assess the current landscape. We gathered data from six different agencies, including: Department of Energy (DOE), Environment Protection Agency (EPA), NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) , National Science Foundation (NSF), and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). We merged the information with data from the Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, in order to analyze the types of universities and colleges receiving federal funding.
Our sample of ARCS grants represents approximately $1.42 billion in funding, with the DOE and NSF accounting for most of the funding. We developed three key recommendations that can help improve the future of ARCS:
Developing a centralized Data Repository of ARCS efforts across federal agencies;
Broadening participation of researchers in ARCS both by research field and institution type;
Building stronger partnerships between academic and non-academic experts, including members of impacted communities and climate-relevant industries.
1. Developing a centralized Data Repository of ARCS efforts across federal agencies
A centralized database of ARCS efforts is needed to grasp a better understanding of climate solutions research. Our effort to sample and assess existing ARCS efforts was unnecessarily difficult and tedious due to a lack of centralization and proper database maintenance.
Currently, there isn’t any synergy between agencies and platforms that list public research on climate change. Having a centralized data repository within the federal government for climate change solutions should be the first step towards solving the climate crisis.
A centralized database of ARCS is important to grasp the complete understanding of initiatives at higher education institutions. Researchers will be better equipped to find appropriate funding opportunities and assess the full landscape of funding for climate solutions research if they can first easily search through and learn about existing efforts.
2. Broadening participation of researchers in ARCS both by research field and institution type
The climate crisis impacts society as a whole and requires an understanding of how it impacts all aspects of society. Our report found there to be an imbalance between academic fields, inclusion of various higher education institutions, and a lack of focus on social sciences in the ARCS grants we analyzed.
The majority of ARCS funding goes to R1 (High Research Activity) institutions like the University of Massachusetts Amherst. However, R1 Institutions represent only 3% of higher education institutions so the majority of college students are excluded from climate solutions research. The energy transition is anticipated to require partnerships from labor coalitions and job training for skills in new energy industries. It is important to distribute more federal resources to higher education institutions that do not focus solely on research or to high research activity schools.
Broadening the set of academic institutions that participate in ARCS would support the development of equitable and inclusive climate solutions while building equity in the clean industry workforce. Diverse energy and clean-tech related industries can help build capacity for equitable community engagement. Diverse teams have been found to be more productive at solving complex problems compared to homogenous teams of researchers (Hong and Page, 2004).
Collaboration between various academic fields is important for effective climate solutions and we cannot forget that labor conditions and demand for work will change. Social science is key to understanding human drivers of climate change and will be critical to effective implementation of communication efforts and policy responses. Climate mitigation solutions research could benefit greatly from inclusion of social scientific expertise to measure consumer choices and behavior. Social science research can also help support measuring equity and impacts of climate change policies on various demographics groups.
3. Building stronger partnerships between academic and non-academic experts, including members of impacted communities and climate-relevant industries.
Partnerships with industry professionals are important for incorporating their expertise in technology development and understanding of the marketplace for climate solutions with cutting edge academic research. Community engagement brings in the needs and capabilities of people who are the most vulnerable to climate change impacts yet who are often neglected in decision-making. Perhaps most importantly, making research in this sector usable requires bringing a diverse set of stakeholders to the table because the private sector has the market research and consumer expertise for effective climate solutions.
The federal government can help direct economic goals and productivity through innovative policy and support. Colleges and universities are crucial to developing the next generation of the labor force. It is important that the federal government continues to support higher education institutions in the quest for an equitable energy transition. The climate crisis requires the federal ARCS funding programs to expand their reach beyond the status quo and to broaden participation across disciplines, institutions, and key stakeholders.
Our full report with Second Nature “The Future of Academic Research of Climate Solutions” can be found here.