I-CREWS will increase our empirical and theoretical understanding of how social systems, such as governance dynamics and local knowledge, can inform behaviors, trade-offs, and E-W futures in relation to climate, population, and technological change.

The motivating research hypothesis is that communities undergoing changes in their E-W systems can be characterized at different scales to determine patterns of multisystemic resilience to change. Thus, E-W system resilience will be more effectively and equitably evaluated, shaped, and implemented by incorporating coproduced local knowledge, and governance dynamics with advanced data analysis and modeling of stressors.

Two cross-cutting research questions will guide the research and the capacity-building:

1. What role do trade-offs and changes in E-W systems, including storage, efficiency/conservation, local knowledge, and governance dynamics, play in determining resilience strategies or options to climate-driven, population, and technological change?
2. How does incorporating diverse ways of knowing, community engagement, and advanced modeling improve the parameterization of pathways associated with more equitable and resilient E-W futures?

The project's approaches and outcomes, including an E-W Data Hub and a Futures Foundry, will be nationally transferable.

The project emphasizes community engagement and the co-production of knowledge and will conduct multiple initiatives to increase the participation of members of underrepresented groups in STEM. We will build on models of equitable STEM education while developing researchers' abilities to collaborate more effectively with communities and work with students to build the technical skills necessary to fill E-W systems workforce needs.

I-CREWS will support WFD and student training through high-context, community-engaged courses and projects that are co-created with community members to address E-W systems issues. A Tribal Nation Research Network (TNRN) will be developed to recenter knowledge exchange between Tribes and Idaho universities, focusing on collaboration through the development of tribally-originated research.

The project will also support over 120 undergraduate research summer experiences that will provide meaningful research opportunities. Innovative programs for faculty professional development will be expanded to 140 faculty across all three research universities, creating a cohort of researchers supported and enabled to pursue transformative and community-engaged scholarship.

I-CREWS will help determine how urban, rural, and Tribal communities can adapt to climate, population, and technological change and will translate this knowledge to help achieve more resilient communities.

I-CREWS responds directly to NSF grand challenges of climate and resilience research and innovation and understanding the interplay between availability and distribution of energy and water. Likewise, it addresses NSF’s Sustainable and Clean Energy theme and is aligned with NSF's 10 Big Ideas of Harnessing the Data Revolution and Growing Convergence Research. I-CREWS is well-aligned with the State's new Science and Technology (S&T) plan, directly supporting research and economic development in energy systems, natural resource use and conservation, and systems engineering. This alignment coupled with the promise of I-CREWS increasing collaboration among the State's universities and colleges served as a backdrop to the theme's selection by the Idaho EPSCoR State Committee.

University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho
Boise State University, Boise, Idaho
Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho
Coeur d'Alene Tribe, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, Fort Hall, Idaho
College of Southern Idaho, Twin Falls, Idaho
Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston, Idaho
College of Western Idaho, Nampa, Idaho
Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES), Idaho Falls, Idaho
Idaho STEM Action Center, Boise, Idaho
Idaho Power, Boise, Idaho
Idaho Consumer Owned Utilities Association, Boise, Idaho
Idaho Department of Water Resources, Boise, Idaho
Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, Idaho
Avista Utilities, Spokane, Washington
Nez Perce Tribe, Lapwai, Idaho
Shoshone-Paiute Tribe, Owyhee, Idaho