Stakeholder Engagement
In CCRUN’s Phase III efforts, the team will employ several overarching approaches to stakeholder engagement. While each project will utilize context-specific methodologies, these approaches will guide our co-generation of policy-relevant, actionable science.
Knowledge Exchange: During Phase II, seminars, webinars, and workshops were highly effective at fostering knowledge exchange between sectors, disciplines, decision makers, and scientists and at creating follow up opportunities for place-based research. In Phase III, we will expand multi-directional knowledge exchange, utilizing real-world learning experiences and CCRUN’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan Database to engage students and university partners in climate action. This will include fora for knowledge exchange between the public (federal, state, municipal), private, and non-profit sectors, as well as community groups, enabling scientists to learn about salient adaptation issues. The team will prioritize engagement structures that: 1. Facilitate multi-directional learning between different decision makers and scientists; 2. Allow jurisdictions across the region to exchange knowledge; and 3. Draw upon local knowledge held within communities.
Needs Assessment: CCRUN has played an integral role in the development of needs assessments throughout the region, including the Climate Needs Assessment for New York State (NYSERDA) and the Climate Research Exchange (NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice). In Phase III, CCRUN will continue to engage stakeholders to inform both the process and content of climate assessments from neighborhood to regional scales. Based on the premise that adaptation priorities must be informed by community members, needs assessments contribute to the democratization, salience, and legitimacy of climate information services and inform CCRUN’s research across Topic Areas and Integration Projects.
Community-Scale Capacity Building: Across the region, inequalities of access, capacity, and resources have resulted in stark differences in levels of community integration into climate adaptation planning. To begin to address these inequalities, we have for example collaborated with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Projection Local Climate Adaptation Assistance Program to develop climate action plans for several small towns across the state (e.g., The Green Infrastructure Master Plans for the Cramer Hill neighborhood of Camden, NJ). In Phase III, CCRUN will extend this kind of stakeholder engagement within communities that lack dedicated staff, plans, and funding for adaptation activities. By focusing on capacity building within under-resourced communities, CCRUN aims to contribute to environmental justice goals of equal access to climate information and services. This approach aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goal pledge to Leave No One Behind, prioritizing the needs of the most vulnerable first.
Web-Based Tools: During Phase II, the project website was completely refurbished. It will serve as a vehicle for advancing stakeholder engagement. Besides listing key events, resources, publications, and personnel, the website will house monthly updates on research activities, be used as a convening space for our stakeholders to share updates across the network and serve as a space for partner communities to share and exchange climate information, data, and application needs. We will also use the website to store and share datasets and tools developed in our research.