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Announcing CIVIC Stage 2 Pilot Grants

September 21st, 2023 –

The National Science Foundation (NSF), in partnership with the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), US Department of Energy (DOE), and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), recently announced stage 2 awardees for the 2022 iteration of Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC), a national research and action competition focused on rapidly transitioning emerging technologies and concepts into local community to address their long-standing challenges.


CIVIC is a unique federal partnership that prioritizes community engagement, transdisciplinary research, and real-world pilots that center communities and their priorities to drive forward scientific innovation. Stage 2 teams  competed for awards of up to $1 million over 12 months during the first stage of the grant, and will be using these funds to support ready-to-implement research-based pilot projects that have the potential for scalable, sustainable, and transferable impact on community-identified priorities.

Living in a Changing Climate

Pre-Disaster Action Around Adaptation, Resilience, and Mitigation

Jump to projects in this track

Resource and Service Equity

Bridging the Gap between Essential Resources and Services & Community Needs

Jump to projects in this track

Hover over a pilot site to see the project title.
Click to learn more about the team's work.

CIVIC2022MapTracks

Living in a Changing Climate

Pre-Disaster Action Around Adaptation, Resilience, and Mitigation

Project Lead: Jason Evans – Stetson University

As a built-out barrier island community, the City of Cape Canaveral, Florida is faced with unique stormwater management challenges and opportunities. Stetson University, the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council, and Florida Sea Grant are working with Cape Canaveral to implement and assess nature-based infrastructure designed to protect against flooding and improve local water quality. Undergraduate students and community volunteers will assist researchers with the collection and interpretation of field data, providing a regional model for partnership and innovation in climate hazards adaptation.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs: 

 

1-page project overview
 

 

Project Video

 

Project Lead: Kelly Stevens – University of Central Florida

The University of Central Florida and its partners, including the City of Orlando and community organizations, will use a community-engaged approach to co-design an equity-centered, portable resilience hub and education center for underserved communities in Central Florida. Our Resilience, Education, and Advocacy Center for Hazard preparedness, or REACH hub will provide pre- and post-disaster necessities and connectivity and serve as hands-on STEM education centers during non-emergency times. We will put vulnerable communities in front of what we do by listening and incorporating community feedback to develop the technical specifications for the solar-powered, modular hub that can be scaled for other hurricane-prone communities.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs: 

 

1-page project overview

 

Project Video

Project Lead: David Reidmiller – Gulf of Maine Research Institute

Local observations of coastal water levels and the associated flood impacts are key to supporting sea level rise adaptation; however, these observations are sparse along Maine’s 3,500 miles of tidally-influenced coastline. The Gulf of Maine Research Institute is working with civic, community, industry, and education partners in four coastal Maine towns – Machias, Saint George, Boothbay Harbor, and Portland – to build a scalable process that supports collection and translation of water level and flood impact data for local decision-making and intergenerational community engagement. The project team will install emerging, low-cost tide gauge technologies in priority areas identified by civic and community partners; codevelop community science and education programs for collecting flood impact observations with educators and community organizations; build data infrastructure and viewers to support robust and sustainable data access; and develop a framework for municipal-scale siting of gauges for high water monitoring applications.

Stage 2 Planning Outputs:

1-page project overview

Project Video

Project Lead: Kannan Thiruvengadam – Eastie Farm

 

1-2-Green!
East Boston is an immigrant-majority Environmental Justice Community with diminished resiliency due to economic inequities. Eastie Farm is a grassroots organization that fosters equitable local food systems, regenerative land use, and environmental stewardship. We envision a local and easily accessible green workforce development program for youth – a natural progression of our current work with K-12 schools and our creation of green jobs and climate solutions, such as our zero-emission greenhouse.

 

This pilot involves both biological and social science research, with ecosocial community benefits built in. Youth will be paid to assist experts in identifying and implementing green infrastructure solutions that increase coastal resiliency, ways to remove barriers to green jobs, and ways to increase community adoption of beneficial ecosocial programs. As they learn research methods and green job skills, youth will see how their work directly benefits their own community. Northeastern University, the City of Boston, M.I.T., East Boston Community Development Corporation, and The Emerald Tutu will work with Eastie Farm using a multi-channel, multilingual approach to ensure inclusive community engagement throughout the pilot. Our CIVIC pilot will be a model for 21st century resilience for communities like ours.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs:

 

1-page project overview

 

Project Video

 

Project Lead: Clinton Andrews – Rutgers University New Brunswick

 

Rutgers University, Groundwork Elizabeth, the Housing Authority of the City of Elizabeth, and the City of Elizabeth, New Jersey will work to protect seniors living in urban public housing from the triple threat of summer heat stress, poor air quality, and inadequate indoor ventilation. Project partners will measure thermal and air quality conditions by deploying networked fixed sensors and youth participating in after-school STEM education activities will carry mobile sensors while accompanying seniors. The community engagement encouraged by this project should help seniors cope with summer heat waves, help kids learn STEM skills, and provide advocates and researchers with spatially detailed indoor and outdoor data on thermal and air quality conditions to inform modeling and public policymaking.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs:

 

1-page project overview

 

Project Video

Project Lead: Chen Feng – New York University

 

New York University Tandon School of Engineering, the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (NYC DCAS), the New York City Office of Technology and Innovation (NYC OTI), and District 2030 are collaborating to create better ways to rapidly assess the 10,000+ building envelopes that require air sealing and weatherization under NYC’s soon to be enforced Local Law 97 by December 31, 2024. The collaboration will use drones, AI, and ground penetrating radar to find specific locations where targeted micro-retrofits will be carried out to perform weatherization, air-sealing, and adding additional insulation. The results of the study and collaboration will provide all NYC municipal departments with a way to rapidly prepare their buildings for the approaching Local Law 97 deadlines.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs:

 

1-page project overview

 

Project Video

Project Lead: Tieyuan Zhu – Pennsylvania State University

 

Our team is developing a new way to identify underground hazards such as sewer leaks, sinkholes, and landslides. We are applying new technology to interpret signals from existing underground telecommunication fiber-optic cables that allows us to detect these hazards in real-time across a city. For our initial pilot testing, we are working with the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs:

 

1-page project overview

 

Project Video

Project Lead: Lulin Jiang – Baylor University

 

In order to mitigate the urgent crisis of climate change, Baylor University is partnering with the City of Waco to pilot a near-zero emission, multi-fuel combustor that transforms local waste of wide varieties with minimal postprocessing into ultra-clean energy. This innovation will maximize resiliency via its high fuel flexibility by 1) reducing the local waste treatment burden, and the emissions from landfills (mainly methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide) which are significant contributors to climate change, 2) creating a new power source for the local community, and 3) improving the overall quality of life, especially for underprivileged members of the community significantly impacted by climate change. Through Baylor’s mission to be stewards of the community through academic excellence, and the City of Waco’s goals to provide improved infrastructure and economic development, this pilot combustor can be scaled up for various heat and power platforms and transferred to other cities, creating a cleaner and more sustainable society at large.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs:

 

1-page project overview

 

Project Video

Project Lead: Kerry Kelly – University of Utah

 

Air pollution is the 4th leading risk factor for premature death worldwide; yet many communities in the US, particularly in rural areas, lack reliable air quality measurements or forecasts to help them make informed choices about reducing air pollution exposure, which is particularly important during poor air quality episodes, like wildfires and dust storms. The University of Utah is partnering with key decision-making organizations to co-develop an open-access platform with actionable air quality information at the neighborhood scale on an hourly basis; these partners include the Utah Division of Air Quality, the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, and the Utah High School Activities Association. The resulting cost-effective environmental sensors and smart data analysis techniques will empower citizens, scientists, and policy makers to make data-driven decisions to reduce exposure to poor air quality and enhance community health and well being.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs:

 

Project Video

Project Lead: Theodore Lim – Virginia Tech

 

Virginia Tech’s School of Public and International Affairs, the City of Roanoke, and community-based organizations are partnering to develop a youth citizen science program to build resilience to extreme heat among vulnerable populations. Youth will be trained in citizen science methods including: wearable and fixed-location sensors, GIS, intercept surveys, and photovoice. The data collected will be used in an online digital heat resilience hub, which will increase the inclusivity and comprehensiveness of planning and policy processes for mitigating and managing the effects of extreme heat in the city.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs:

 

1-page project overview

 

Project Video

Resource and Service Equity

Bridging the Gap between Essential Resources and Services & Community Needs

Project Lead: Michele Statz – University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

 

In Alaska, under-resourced rural infrastructure and a lack of trained legal professionals leave low-income individuals with civil legal needs, among them problems related to debt, domestic violence, and housing, with little chance of achieving a just resolution. In response, this project brings together the University of Minnesota Medical School, Alaska Legal Services Corporation, the American Bar Foundation Access to Justice Research Initiative, and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium to explore how to scale up and sustain the nascent Community Justice Worker (CJW) project. The CJW project is the first of its kind, representing a replicable delivery model that trains trusted, culturally-representative community health workers and others already embedded in rural and remote regions to provide critical legal advocacy, including formal legal advice and representation.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs:

 

1-page project overview

 

Project Video

Project Lead: Amanda Bishop – University of Alaska

 

University of Alaska and the Tribal Government of St. Paul Island are transforming citizen-scientist research partnerships by empowering Indigenous Alaskan communities and building capacity to tackle inequities surrounding traditional food security. The pilot will address community-identified concerns of contaminants in marine food resources, by anchoring existing research technology and training within a Tribal institution, as opposed to an external academic, agency or contract laboratory. By embracing the braided-river model in which different ways of knowing can flow independently or join to maximize each other’s strengths, we will facilitate rapid responses to changes in vital natural resources, with long-term goals of enhancing equity, inclusion, risk management, and resilience.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs:

 

1-page project overview

 

Project Video

Project Lead: Morteza Dehghani – University of Southern California

 

Traffic stops are both mundane and potentially deadly. Past studies have shown harmful racial disparities in how civilians are communicated with during these stops. The Everyday Respect project uses body-worn video recordings to study the interaction of different forms of communication and contextual factors by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers and drivers during traffic stops. We assess how different stakeholders view “good” officer communication; build machine learning tools to measure communication; and then work with LAPD to design training and policy innovations based on our analysis. Even though we focus on LAPD communications, the machine learning frameworks, the officer training curricula, and the policy innovations we develop are potentially applicable nationally.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs:

 

1-page project overview

 

Project Video

Project Lead: Miranda Worthen – San Jose State University Foundation

 

Community Paramedicine is an innovative approach to providing complex care to communities. Community Paramedics in the San Francisco Fire Department collaborate with other agencies to help folks who rely heavily on 911 services, experience overdoses and other behavioral crises, and need more holistic care than traditional emergency services can provide. To further the groundbreaking work taking place in this city, we will develop and institutionalize metrics to measure progress towards equity in all areas of service. Through a client community advisory board, we will ensure that perspectives of those served by the division are solicited, listened to, and integrated into ongoing decision-making within the Community Paramedicine Division and its partners. Long established as a leader in the field of community paramedicine, San Francisco is poised to further pioneer strategies to hold programs accountable to their communities.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs:

 

1-page project overview

 

Project Video

Project Lead: Weslynne Ashton – Illinois Institute of Technology

 

 The project investigates how “Good Food” public procurement policies can be used to shift food systems towards greater racial equity, sustainability and resilience. In Chicagoland, buyers and producers indicate that the major challenges of implementing these policies stem from differences in values and visions among stakeholders, mismatches in the volumes and types of products available vs purchased, and inflexibility of current procurement channels. The research team will investigate and co-design strategies for achieving a common vision, discover and quantify the value of locally produced food that can meet institutional needs, and pilot changes to procurement models with 3 institutions in the City of Chicago and Cook County. A key expected outcome is the identification of pathways for small producers and producers of color to self-determine their participation in the food supply chain, including selling nourishing and culturally-affirming foods to large, public institutions. Results of the pilots will be directly applicable to other city and county institutions that have adopted Good Food policies. The overall approach and lessons will be transferable to cities and regions around the US that are in various stages of enacting similar policies.

 

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs:

 

1-page project overview

Project Lead: Lindsay Weixler – Tulane University

 

The New Orleans Collaborative for Early Childhood Research, co-directed by Tulane University, Agenda for Children, and New Orleans Public Schools, is working to develop and test a unified application portal for multiple programs supporting low-income families in New Orleans. Currently, families must submit separate applications on separate websites, providing the same documents repeatedly, in order to access all of the resources they need to support their children. We aim to create and evaluate a unified portal that would streamline the application process for families, increasing enrollment rates in social service programs and reducing burden on public agencies.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs:

1-page project overview

 

Project Video

Project Lead: Brian Tomaszewski – Rochester Institute of Technology

 

The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and the National Technical Institute of the Deaf (NTID), the Monroe County Office of Emergency Management, and the Rochester Recreation Club for Deaf will identify Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) community emergency service gaps, create and evaluate DHH emergency communication tools, identifying educational pathways for incorporation of knowledge about the DHH into emergency management and geospatial technology practice, and identify pathways for the DHH to become part of the emergency management STEM workforce and volunteer efforts. The project will directly address issues related to incorporating special needs populations into emergency management practice as results will be generalizable to other community contexts with special needs populations beyond Monroe County NY for broader project national impact and legacy as one in eight people in the US have hearing loss.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs:

 

1-page project overview

 

Project Video

Project Lead: Ayana Allen-Handy – Drexel University

 

Drexel University’s transdisciplinary team, in partnership with an established cross-sector partner network will address urgent affordable housing needs in the West Philadelphia Promise Zone neighborhood of Mantua, a rapidly gentrifying community that is also one of the nation’s most impoverished. The purpose of this project is to develop, implement, and evaluate the Second Story Collective (2SC) arts-centered model for intergenerational co-housing as an anti-displacement and aging-in-place strategy. 2SC has the potential to be implemented in similar communities throughout the US, and results from this pilot will serve as a model of sustained community-driven solutions for equitable development, particularly for historically marginalized Black communities.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs:

 

1-page project overview

 

Project Video

Project Lead: Soledad Gaztambide – Foundation for Puerto Rico

 

We seek to pilot a participatory civic technology initiative, re+connect, to close the last-mile disaster relief gap and create long-term resilience for underserved communities with software technology, data intelligence, and social infrastructure. Building on extensive collaborative research and design efforts from the past three years, we aim to mobilize, inform, and coordinate collective action across residents, community groups, and governmental and non-governmental entities in disaster management to direct the right responses, to the right places, at the right time. The pilot initiative integrates an accessible, reliable, and user-friendly software application with an inclusive community engagement program to enable and empower residents to act as “community ambassadors” to crowdsource key information to bridge the gap between essential resources and services provision and community needs in the face of disasters. We bring together a team with expertise and experiences across humanitarian innovation, participatory design, civic engagement, social and behavioral science, disaster informatics, software technology, and social entrepreneurship to both advance knowledge and understanding in key fields related to disaster management and generate measurable, inclusive, and equitable social impacts. Successful implementation of the initiative will enhance peoples’ access to essential resources and services by strengthening social connectedness, improving local disaster information and knowledge inclusion, and facilitating collaboration and coordination across stakeholders to achieve disaster management goals.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs:

 

1-page project overview

 

Project Video

Project Lead: Nilanjan Sarkar – Vanderbilt University

 

Vanderbilt University and San Diego State University will explore an integrated artificial-intelligence and behavioral science based driving-training (AIDT) system, specifically designed for neurodiverse individuals, to address the large need of transportation independence. Some 85% of autistic adults are un/under-employed — at a cost to the economy of more than $400 billion annually — and research shows that adults on the autism spectrum rate employment as their top concern for improved quality of life, however fewer than 30% of driving-age autistic individuals are licensed to drive, limiting access to employment opportunities. The project will bring together a broad based coalition of community stakeholders — including vocational training centers, schools, clinics, and insurance providers — to understand how to package the AIDT system for seamless deployment across the community, effectively train community service providers in its use, and develop mechanisms within the community for its financial sustainability.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs:

 

1-page project overview

 

Project Video

Project Lead: Jamie Shinn – SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

This project is a collaboration between researchers from West Virginia University, the West Virginia GIS Technical Center, and several civic organizations that were instrumental in response to a devastating flood that occurred in Greenbrier County, WV in 2016. Our team will use a county-wide survey, Participatory GIS, and focus groups in two communities with different levels of socioeconomic vulnerability to determine the gaps in organizational capacity, cross-organization coordination, and flood risk knowledge that need to be filled for more comprehensive flood response and recovery. Findings will serve as the foundation for the creation of the West Virginia Flood Resilience Framework, an online toolkit that will empower communities and local governments across WV with the knowledge they need for coordination and capacity building to better prepare for future floods.

 

Stage 2 Planning Outputs: 


1- page project overview


Project Video