NSF Engines Development Award: Leveraging innovations for water and energy security (NM, TX)

NSF 发动机开发奖：利用创新实现水和能源安全（新墨西哥、德克萨斯州）

• 批准号: 2315274
• 负责人: David Hanson
• 金额: $ 100万
• 依托单位: University of New Mexico
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-03-01 至 2026-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2315274&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Engines; Development; Award; Leveraging; NSF; Engines; Development; Award; Leveraging

This Regional Innovation Engines Development Award aims to design an innovation ecosystem producing resilient and sustainable solutions at the nexus of clean water and clean energy. Water scarcity is the defining challenge in the southwestern US, and globally, drylands cover 41% of the land surface, supporting 38% of the human population. Water is life, and the proposed region (encompassing the Navajo Nation, New Mexico, and far west Texas) has the highest household water insecurity in the nation. Approximately one-third of all Navajo families and dozens of communities near the Mexico border lack piped water or adequate sanitation. Regionally, ~78% of people rely on groundwater for drinking water, but large supplies of water are unusable without treatment, including saline water and water contaminated by industry, agriculture, and military facilities. Gaining access to clean water requires energy for hauling, piping, pumping, and cleaning it. Innovation closing the large gap between the regional potential for clean energy and the realized capacity to meet regional needs for clean water will also address economic and climate needs by developing a broad and highly skilled workforce while transitioning to the region to clean energy. The project team will co-create solutions with underserved communities and incorporate indigenous knowledge with a holistic approach that will lead the invention and commercialization of technologies that maximize resilience and bring clean water to every tap, decarbonized power to every door, and a diverse, inclusive, and vibrant economy to the region.The proposed innovation ecosystem represents a partnership of 2- and 4-year higher education institutions, national laboratories, community groups, government organizations, and both for-profit and non-profit companies in a region of exceptional cultural diversity with 48% identifying as Hispanic and 10% as Native American across 23 tribes. Communities in the region experience high economic distress, exceeding the national average of 13% living in poverty, with New Mexico (NM) and El Paso County at ~19%, and Navajo Nation at a staggering 33%. To help lift communities out of poverty and launch development of essential infrastructure, project activities are designed around holistic community-engaged projects that emphasize regional strategic economic development imperatives: alignment with stakeholders in a collective, representative ecosystem, expanded capacity for techno-economic development initiatives in rural and tribal communities, preparation of a skilled workforce to enable renewable energy transitions and solutions to water scarcity, and new bridges between industry and technological experts. Community engagement efforts will include Tribal led “learning tours” to help ecosystem members integrate Native perspectives and knowledge into all clean water and clean energy projects. Use-inspired research efforts will develop plans for a network of integrated water/energy resilience testbeds for four topics: clean water, clean energy, integrated water/energy resilience, and maps & models of unconventional water resources. Workforce development efforts will strengthen the coalition of community colleges through shared comprehensive training programs, and entrepreneurship will be expanded by building upon programs that are tailored to meet the unique cultural needs of different communities, ensuring inclusivity and relevance. This Development Award will enable the team to engage in a regional, collaborative planning process to prepare a future Engine to meet the above goals.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.

该区域创新发动机开发奖旨在设计创新的生态系统，该生态系统在清洁水和清洁能源的联系下生产抗性和可持续性解决方案。缺水是美国西南部的决定性挑战，在全球范围内，旱地占地41％，支持了38％的人口。水是生命，拟建的地区（涵盖了纳瓦霍国家，新墨西哥州和西德克萨斯州）的家庭水位不安全最高。大约三分之一的纳瓦霍家庭和墨西哥边境附近的数十个社区缺乏管道的水或足够的卫生设施。在区域上，约有78％的人依靠地下水来饮用水，但是没有治疗的大量水是无法使用的，包括盐水和工业，农业和军事设施污染的盐水和水。获得清洁水需要拖运，管道，抽水和清洁的能量。创新缩小了区域清洁能源潜力与满足清洁水域需求的实现能力之间的巨大差距，还将通过发展广泛而高技能的劳动力，同时过渡到该地区清洁能源，以满足经济和气候需求。项目团队将与服务不足的社区共同创建解决方案，并以整体方法结合土著知识，将领导活动和商业化技术的商业化，这些技术最大程度地发挥了弹性，并将清洁的水带到每个门上，为每个门脱碳，多样性，包容性和活力的经济，并为该地区提供了较高的工具社区。集团，政府组织以及营利性和非营利性公司在一个卓越的文化多样性地区，有48％的人确定为西班牙裔，在23个部落中为美国原住民10％。该地区的社区经历了巨大的经济困扰，超过了贫困人口的全国平均水平，新墨西哥州（NM）和埃尔帕索县（El Paso County）约为19％，而纳瓦霍（Navajo Nation）则达到惊人的33％。 To help lift communities out of poverty and launch development of essential infrastructure, project activities are designed around holistic community-engaged projects that emphasize regional strategic economic development imperatives: alignment with stakeholders in a Collective, representative ecosystem, expanded capacity for technology-economic development initiatives in rough and tribal communities, preparation of a skilled workforce to enable renewable energy transitions and solutions to water scarcity, and new行业和技术专家之间的桥梁。社区参与工作将包括部落领导的“学习之旅”，以帮助生态系统成员将本地观点和知识整合到所有清洁水和清洁能源项目中。采用启发的研究工作将制定针对四个主题的集成水/能源弹性测试床网络的计划：清洁水，清洁能源，综合水/能源弹性以及非常规水资源的地图和模型。劳动力发展努力将通过共同的全面培训计划来加强社区大学的联盟，并通过构建量身定制的计划来扩展企业家精神，以满足不同社区的独特文化需求，从而确保包容性和相关性。该开发奖将使团队能够参与区域协作计划过程，以准备未来的引擎以实现上述目标。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估审查标准，认为通过评估被认为是宝贵的支持。