The University of Hawaii’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, or Hawaii EPSCoR, has received a five-year $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation, UH officials announced Monday.
The grant aims to fund research and capacity building in support of actionable climate science through a collaboration called Change HI.
According to an announcement from the university, "the multidisciplinary research effort will integrate expertise in climate and data science to enhance fundamental knowledge and develop new climate models, data products and tools."
The university said that Change HI — a collaborative program with partners both inside and outside of the UH system — will advance Hawaii's education and workforce readiness in these areas, and "help build a new data-driven knowledge economy statewide, targeting the growth of computer and data science that can be applied in critical areas of state need and growth."
“Change HI represents an amazing opportunity for us to advance even further one of our globally distinctive strengths, climate change and resilience,” UH President David Lassner said in a statement. “At the same time we will continue to build fundamental capacity in Hawaii in data science, which is increasingly vital across the full spectrum of inquiry and activity in academia, business and government.”
According to the announcement, Change HI research has eight data and climate science-focused projects.
Research teams will work in areas of climate downscaling, numerical modeling sensitivity studies, functional trait analysis, carbon sequestration, cloud water interception and soil moisture characterization.
“This exciting project brings together an outstanding team of scientists and educators and has enormous potential to address two critical challenges for our state — preparing for the impacts of climate change and building a resilient data-driven economy,” Information Technology Services Director of Cyber infrastructure and Principal Investigator Gwen Jacobs said in a statement.
Change HI also will build research capacity through new data science faculty hires, developing and creating access to climate data and products, and building immersive data analytics environments to aid in decision making, UH said.
Additionally, the program will support data science education and workforce development through programs that include graduate fellowships, summer undergraduate research experiences, internships and data science training and certification.
According to the announcement, the focus of the Change HI collaborations are to "increase the state’s climate resilience through leveraging climate and data science research and support diversification and growth of Hawaii’s economy through data analytics."
Participating organizations include: the UH System, UH Manoa, UH Hilo, Chaminade University, Island of Opportunity Pacific Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, Hawaii IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence, UH LGBTQ+ Center, UH Office of Innovation and Commercialization, Waianae Mountains Watershed Partnership, Hawaii State Energy Office and Hawaii Community Foundation.
