SAI-P: Developing Long-Term Socio-Technical Research Programs with Electric Cooperatives

SAI-P：与电力合作社共同开发长期社会技术研究项目

• 批准号: 2228307
• 负责人: Gabriel Chan
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-15 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2228307&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SAI; Developing; Long; Term; Socio

Strengthening American Infrastructure (SAI) is an NSF Program seeking to stimulate human-centered fundamental and potentially transformative research that strengthens America’s infrastructure. Effective infrastructure provides a strong foundation for socioeconomic vitality and broad quality of life improvement. Strong, reliable, and effective infrastructure spurs private-sector innovation, grows the economy, creates jobs, makes public-sector service provision more efficient, strengthens communities, promotes equal opportunity, protects the natural environment, enhances national security, and fuels American leadership. To achieve these goals requires expertise from across the science and engineering disciplines. SAI focuses on how knowledge of human reasoning and decision-making, governance, and social and cultural processes enables the building and maintenance of effective infrastructure that improves lives and society and builds on advances in technology and engineering.Most electricity in the United States is delivered by large utilities. But a significant segment of the population is served by electric cooperatives, mostly in rural areas. These are community-owned and community-managed electric utilities that have shown great innovation in their self-governance. Electric cooperatives have built portfolios of distributed resources that achieve economies of scope. Yet they are now seeking to adapt their electric grids to a world with less centralized fossil-fueled generation and more decarbonized and electrified distributed energy resources. With societal demands for new technologies, organizational competencies, and business practices to transition from fossil fuel combustion to cleaner electric end uses, electric cooperatives are facing intense pressure to adapt. This SAI planning project builds new and deeper capacity-building partnerships between university researchers, land grant university extension services, and rural electric cooperatives for research-to-action programs. The aim is to advance the collective innovation and management of rural energy transitions while improving the quality of life for rural communities.Rural electric cooperatives maintain coupled socio-technical infrastructure systems consisting of connected physical electricity-system assets and social systems of governance and institutions surrounding their physical infrastructure. This project builds capacity to identify, manage, and innovate around the dynamics of the physical and social infrastructure systems of rural electric cooperatives. The goal of this project is to establish a model of “Long-Term Socio-Technical Research” (LTSTR) programs wherein locally situated interdisciplinary researchers, extension services, and rural electric cooperatives build durable partnerships for knowledge-to-action programs, elevation of community stakeholder participation, and durable consumer-centric energy transitions. This project seeks to understand effective models for long-term university-cooperative utility partnerships and develop strategies for strengthening the impact of these partnerships on rural community vitality over time. LTSTR programs provide a platform to facilitate short-term researcher- and student-led projects, along with training to support a decarbonized and electrified future with rural communities. In partnership with utility and community partners, this SAI planning project builds a strategy for expanding and formalizing engaged research methods in diverse contexts across the United States.This award is supported by the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Sciences.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.

加强美国基础设施 (SAI) 是一项 NSF 计划，旨在促进以人为本的基础性和潜在变革性研究，加强美国的基础设施，为社会经济活力和广泛的生活质量改善提供坚实的基础。私营部门创新、发展经济、创造就业机会、提供更多公共部门服务、加强社区、促进平等机会、保护自然环境、增强国家安全并增强美国的领导力。要实现这些目标，需要来自各个领域的专业知识。 SAI 专注于人类推理和决策、治理以及社会和文化过程的知识如何能够建设和维护有效的基础设施，从而改善生活和社会，并以技术和工程的进步为基础。在美国，电力是由大型公用事业公司提供的，但很大一部分人口是由电力合作社提供服务的，主要是在农村地区。这些电力合作社是社区拥有和管理的电力公司，在自治方面表现出了巨大的创新。电力合作社建立了分布式资源组合然而，随着社会对新技术、组织能力和商业实践的转型需求，他们正在寻求使电网适应一个更少集中化化石燃料发电和更加脱碳和电气化的分布式能源的世界。从化石燃料燃烧到更清洁的电力最终用途，电力合作社面临着巨大的适应压力，该 SAI 规划项目在大学研究人员、土地赠款大学推广服务机构和农村电力合作社之间建立了新的、更深入的能力建设伙伴关系，以实现研究转化。行动计划。的目标是推进农村能源转型的集体创新和管理，同时提高农村社区的生活质量。农村电力合作社维持耦合的社会技术基础设施系统，包括相互连接的物理电力系统资产以及围绕其物理系统的社会治理系统和机构。该项目围绕农村电力合作社的实体和社会基础设施系统的动态进行识别、管理和创新的能力该项目的目标是建立“长期社会技术研究”（LTSTR）模型。 ）程序。当地的跨学科研究人员、推广服务和农村电力合作社为知识转化为行动计划、提高社区利益相关者的参与以及以消费者为中心的持久能源转型建立持久的伙伴关系。该项目旨在了解长期大学-能源转型的有效模式。合作公用事业伙伴关系并制定战略，以加强这些伙伴关系对农村社区活力的影响，LTSTR 计划提供了一个平台，以促进短期研究人员和学生主导的项目，以及支持农村脱碳和电气化未来的培训。与社区合作。该 SAI 规划项目与公用事业和社区合作伙伴共同制定了一项战略，用于在美国各地的不同背景下扩展和规范参与研究方法。该奖项得到社会、行为和经济 (SBE) 科学理事会的支持。该奖项是 NSF 的法定奖项使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。