WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.060 She says wishing that were true [LAUGHTER]. 00:00:03.060 --> 00:00:04.290 I'm Emily CoBabe Ammann. 00:00:04.290 --> 00:00:06.330 I'm the chief strategist at CU Boulder, 00:00:06.330 --> 00:00:07.440 and among other things, 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:08.760 I run our Grand Challenge, 00:00:08.760 --> 00:00:10.545 which is our space, our future, 00:00:10.545 --> 00:00:14.890 which is about Earth and space sciences, data sciences. 00:00:15.500 --> 00:00:18.060 I was asked to come in and talk to 00:00:18.060 --> 00:00:20.730 our chancellor about this program they had started, 00:00:20.730 --> 00:00:21.810 our space our future, 00:00:21.810 --> 00:00:22.590 and I walked in and 00:00:22.590 --> 00:00:23.985 the chancellor and the provost said, yeah, 00:00:23.985 --> 00:00:26.700 we're going to turn data into action. 00:00:26.700 --> 00:00:29.070 [LAUGHTER] I'm like, you're really 00:00:29.070 --> 00:00:32.750 not because you don't know how to do that. 00:00:32.750 --> 00:00:34.800 I had come from an organization where I've 00:00:34.800 --> 00:00:37.215 been working in the area of climate sciences, 00:00:37.215 --> 00:00:39.680 and really had some key lessons that 00:00:39.680 --> 00:00:42.500 I had learned extraordinarily the hard way, 00:00:42.500 --> 00:00:44.540 some of which I want to share with you, 00:00:44.540 --> 00:00:46.310 because if you thought that this was 00:00:46.310 --> 00:00:48.520 just going to be us talking at you, 00:00:48.520 --> 00:00:51.050 no, we're going to send you 00:00:51.050 --> 00:00:53.675 on a little expedition this afternoon, 00:00:53.675 --> 00:00:56.660 which is why our talks are designed to be very short. 00:00:56.660 --> 00:00:58.865 From my own standpoint, 00:00:58.865 --> 00:01:00.680 picking up on this thread is 00:01:00.680 --> 00:01:03.440 this notion of our communities and our partners become 00:01:03.440 --> 00:01:05.135 critical to our conversation for 00:01:05.135 --> 00:01:07.850 almost any transdisciplinary work that we want 00:01:07.850 --> 00:01:11.275 to do in support of the human condition. 00:01:11.275 --> 00:01:13.610 Building on where Kristine 00:01:13.610 --> 00:01:15.410 and Matthew started us this afternoon, 00:01:15.410 --> 00:01:17.840 this is a picture of the bridge over Avignon. 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:19.940 I've never been there myself, 00:01:19.940 --> 00:01:21.825 but it's clearly beautiful. 00:01:21.825 --> 00:01:24.020 This is actually representative of 00:01:24.020 --> 00:01:26.060 what many of us are trying to do. 00:01:26.060 --> 00:01:29.360 If we at the university are on this side of 00:01:29.360 --> 00:01:31.490 the bank and our community that we want to 00:01:31.490 --> 00:01:34.195 support is on the other side of the bank, 00:01:34.195 --> 00:01:36.410 our job is actually to build 00:01:36.410 --> 00:01:40.520 this bridge to 00:01:40.520 --> 00:01:42.260 that community on the other side of the river, 00:01:42.260 --> 00:01:43.730 and that community could be local, 00:01:43.730 --> 00:01:45.035 it could be regional, 00:01:45.035 --> 00:01:48.085 it could be national, it could be global. 00:01:48.085 --> 00:01:50.750 We all want to solve relevant problems. 00:01:50.750 --> 00:01:54.500 We all want particularly as public institutions to hold 00:01:54.500 --> 00:01:58.340 that trust with our society to say we are here to serve. 00:01:58.340 --> 00:01:59.720 But the number of faculty that 00:01:59.720 --> 00:02:01.040 I have who come to me and say, 00:02:01.040 --> 00:02:02.825 I do all this great work, 00:02:02.825 --> 00:02:05.570 take it and go do something with it. 00:02:05.570 --> 00:02:10.020 Like yeah, that actually doesn't really work that way. 00:02:10.090 --> 00:02:13.190 Our communities and our partners are 00:02:13.190 --> 00:02:14.660 a critical component of 00:02:14.660 --> 00:02:17.165 the process that we need to be successful. 00:02:17.165 --> 00:02:20.585 But building these bridges is really complicated. 00:02:20.585 --> 00:02:22.580 I'll give you just a quick example 00:02:22.580 --> 00:02:24.755 from the world of climate services. 00:02:24.755 --> 00:02:26.870 We have scientists, and applied scientists, 00:02:26.870 --> 00:02:29.060 and data scientists who have a wealth of 00:02:29.060 --> 00:02:31.670 information about climate and climate change. 00:02:31.670 --> 00:02:34.385 But in order to actually meet our community needs, 00:02:34.385 --> 00:02:37.730 we generally have to work with boundary organizations 00:02:37.730 --> 00:02:39.380 that can include development banks 00:02:39.380 --> 00:02:41.030 and non-governmental organizations, 00:02:41.030 --> 00:02:43.040 and national and sub-national governments. 00:02:43.040 --> 00:02:44.825 There are structures including 00:02:44.825 --> 00:02:47.900 frameworks put forward by the UN and the WMO, 00:02:47.900 --> 00:02:50.270 and we haven't even gotten to the community and 00:02:50.270 --> 00:02:52.070 the community activists and 00:02:52.070 --> 00:02:53.840 the organizations that are working 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:56.045 in representing those communities yet. 00:02:56.045 --> 00:02:57.980 All of those, to build 00:02:57.980 --> 00:03:00.125 that bridge all the way across the river 00:03:00.125 --> 00:03:04.370 and maintain that bridge over time is really hard work. 00:03:04.370 --> 00:03:06.540 That's a heavy lift. 00:03:06.770 --> 00:03:09.180 The problem is that it's 00:03:09.180 --> 00:03:14.300 not just the fact that we have to build this bridge, 00:03:14.300 --> 00:03:16.565 but that the bridge involves people 00:03:16.565 --> 00:03:19.939 who are not like us here at the university. 00:03:19.939 --> 00:03:23.180 It involves levels of education and communication, 00:03:23.180 --> 00:03:25.054 there are evaluation matrix 00:03:25.054 --> 00:03:27.440 that need to be brought into play and associated 00:03:27.440 --> 00:03:29.300 research that are not generally in 00:03:29.300 --> 00:03:33.540 our normal sphere of the research that we do. 00:03:34.160 --> 00:03:37.595 Of course, building the bridge is not enough. 00:03:37.595 --> 00:03:39.020 Because you can build the bridge, 00:03:39.020 --> 00:03:40.530 but it's not unidirectional. 00:03:40.530 --> 00:03:44.030 In fact, the research on usable science 00:03:44.030 --> 00:03:47.630 suggests that usable science becomes that thing 00:03:47.630 --> 00:03:49.295 that we're all searching for 00:03:49.295 --> 00:03:51.620 when the end-user community is 00:03:51.620 --> 00:03:53.855 actually walk and cross the bridge to 00:03:53.855 --> 00:03:57.170 us to tell us the questions they want us to answer. 00:03:57.170 --> 00:03:59.560 It's not all about us. 00:03:59.560 --> 00:04:02.630 It's about them and having them drive 00:04:02.630 --> 00:04:05.870 the bus with us to define the research questions 00:04:05.870 --> 00:04:07.535 that we want to answer 00:04:07.535 --> 00:04:10.010 and help us figure out when we've gotten there 00:04:10.010 --> 00:04:11.960 and we're actually providing 00:04:11.960 --> 00:04:15.180 value to them as a community. 00:04:16.640 --> 00:04:19.365 Even if you can do that, 00:04:19.365 --> 00:04:21.690 and like I said it's hard but it is doable. 00:04:21.690 --> 00:04:23.390 I think you can take a look at 00:04:23.390 --> 00:04:25.190 the global framework for climate services 00:04:25.190 --> 00:04:26.960 and see that globally 00:04:26.960 --> 00:04:29.780 we're making progress on these things. 00:04:29.780 --> 00:04:34.040 We hit immediately another challenge 00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:36.590 and that's the issue of scalability. 00:04:36.590 --> 00:04:39.230 Several years ago, I 00:04:39.230 --> 00:04:41.810 was working with some Colorado ranchers who were 00:04:41.810 --> 00:04:44.030 interested in climate change impacts and I asked 00:04:44.030 --> 00:04:46.730 them because I'm that person, "What is it that you need? 00:04:46.730 --> 00:04:48.500 Just tell me, I'm sure we can do it." 00:04:48.500 --> 00:04:50.840 They would say, "I need a climate 00:04:50.840 --> 00:04:53.420 scientists to come into my living room every 00:04:53.420 --> 00:04:55.700 month to help me make decisions about 00:04:55.700 --> 00:04:57.050 water management," because in 00:04:57.050 --> 00:04:59.210 Colorado it's all about the water. 00:04:59.210 --> 00:05:01.220 All of our water is snowpack 00:05:01.220 --> 00:05:04.250 water and climate change is changing our snowpack. 00:05:04.250 --> 00:05:07.400 These ranchers are freaking out because 00:05:07.400 --> 00:05:08.840 their water has become an 00:05:08.840 --> 00:05:11.510 unpredictable and they need our help. 00:05:11.510 --> 00:05:13.520 I said that's fabulous. 00:05:13.520 --> 00:05:17.050 How many are you? Fifteen thousand. 00:05:17.050 --> 00:05:20.775 I got 35,000 wheat farmers in the state, 00:05:20.775 --> 00:05:22.430 and the organization that I worked for 00:05:22.430 --> 00:05:24.110 had 250 climate scientists, 00:05:24.110 --> 00:05:25.340 not most of which I would 00:05:25.340 --> 00:05:27.515 actually put in anybody's living room, 00:05:27.515 --> 00:05:30.960 due respect to them because I love them, 00:05:32.770 --> 00:05:36.430 and we see this time and again. 00:05:36.430 --> 00:05:39.420 We can solve a problem in one area. 00:05:39.420 --> 00:05:42.990 We can build that bridge in one area, and then what? 00:05:42.990 --> 00:05:45.320 There's a woman and she's a dear friend of mine. 00:05:45.320 --> 00:05:47.000 She works on vector-borne diseases, 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:49.070 primarily malaria in Guatemala. 00:05:49.070 --> 00:05:51.875 She's been working on this problem for 20 years. 00:05:51.875 --> 00:05:54.695 She has built the bridge. 00:05:54.695 --> 00:05:56.705 The value chain is in place. 00:05:56.705 --> 00:05:58.940 She's working with local communities on 00:05:58.940 --> 00:06:01.820 ways to eliminate free standing water bodies, 00:06:01.820 --> 00:06:04.645 because that of course is where the mosquitoes breed. 00:06:04.645 --> 00:06:07.610 Over 20 years, she will, 00:06:07.610 --> 00:06:09.709 at the end of her career, 00:06:09.709 --> 00:06:13.610 worked in a community the size of 40 square kilometers. 00:06:13.610 --> 00:06:17.180 Now her research is absolutely valuable. 00:06:17.180 --> 00:06:20.030 It's published primarily in academic journals, 00:06:20.030 --> 00:06:21.590 but her footprint at the end of 00:06:21.590 --> 00:06:25.080 her career will be 40 square kilometers. 00:06:25.790 --> 00:06:30.290 Pinprick in the region itself, 00:06:30.290 --> 00:06:32.390 never mind globally what we're facing with 00:06:32.390 --> 00:06:35.840 malaria and Zika and others. 00:06:35.840 --> 00:06:38.995 What's my point? My point is 00:06:38.995 --> 00:06:42.400 that an important component of designing how 00:06:42.400 --> 00:06:44.425 you think about addressing 00:06:44.425 --> 00:06:46.449 global human solutions 00:06:46.449 --> 00:06:48.639 through transdisciplinary research, 00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:49.855 has to have 00:06:49.855 --> 00:06:54.010 both that community partnership piece, bringing them in, 00:06:54.010 --> 00:06:56.980 integrating them using a collective impacts 00:06:56.980 --> 00:06:58.210 frameworks to be able to 00:06:58.210 --> 00:07:00.580 build a robust bridge that you can 00:07:00.580 --> 00:07:04.100 maintain without your head exploding. 00:07:04.130 --> 00:07:07.300 Creating dissemination plans in 00:07:07.300 --> 00:07:09.790 your research design that allow scalability. 00:07:09.790 --> 00:07:12.470 These are not generally academic papers. 00:07:12.470 --> 00:07:14.620 They're communication plans through 00:07:14.620 --> 00:07:17.530 NGOs and through local communities, 00:07:17.530 --> 00:07:19.600 they're informal community engagement. 00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:22.040 They're tool kits and case studies 00:07:22.040 --> 00:07:24.770 that allow the work that you do in one area to be 00:07:24.770 --> 00:07:26.855 moved globally or to 00:07:26.855 --> 00:07:28.475 other applicable folks and then the 00:07:28.475 --> 00:07:30.575 educational support behind them. 00:07:30.575 --> 00:07:32.600 At CU, we have an Earth science 00:07:32.600 --> 00:07:34.580 data synthesis center called Earth lab. 00:07:34.580 --> 00:07:36.920 One of its charges for 00:07:36.920 --> 00:07:40.520 the USGS is to work with land managers up and down 00:07:40.520 --> 00:07:44.165 the front range to look at 00:07:44.165 --> 00:07:45.830 how climate change is going to be 00:07:45.830 --> 00:07:47.900 impacting the land management 00:07:47.900 --> 00:07:49.355 decisions they have to make. 00:07:49.355 --> 00:07:51.980 The way that they're doing this is really interesting. 00:07:51.980 --> 00:07:53.570 They do a concierge service. 00:07:53.570 --> 00:07:56.250 They will work one on one with small groups of people, 00:07:56.250 --> 00:07:58.670 but every one of those terms into a case study and 00:07:58.670 --> 00:08:00.740 a toolkit that explains 00:08:00.740 --> 00:08:03.275 what data you need, at what resolution, 00:08:03.275 --> 00:08:04.655 why this is important, 00:08:04.655 --> 00:08:06.470 where your areas of uncertainty are, 00:08:06.470 --> 00:08:10.355 so that anybody interested in this particular question, 00:08:10.355 --> 00:08:12.935 maybe it's river management in 00:08:12.935 --> 00:08:16.790 Inner Mountain belts, maybe it's fish, 00:08:16.790 --> 00:08:21.500 the latest one is trout management in lakes in Montana, 00:08:21.500 --> 00:08:25.165 which is great, but it turns out it works in Wyoming. 00:08:25.165 --> 00:08:27.240 The fish don't stop at the borders. 00:08:27.240 --> 00:08:30.530 If you show land managers in Montana what data 00:08:30.530 --> 00:08:31.910 you need and how to get it and 00:08:31.910 --> 00:08:33.860 the tools that you need and where the problems are, 00:08:33.860 --> 00:08:34.985 and what the research is, 00:08:34.985 --> 00:08:37.920 the folks in Wyoming can do it as well. 00:08:39.700 --> 00:08:43.960 As you go through your work this afternoon with us, 00:08:43.960 --> 00:08:45.980 one of the things we'd like you to pay 00:08:45.980 --> 00:08:47.600 attention to is looking at 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:49.640 the partners for the topics that 00:08:49.640 --> 00:08:51.935 you'll be taking on in just a few minutes. 00:08:51.935 --> 00:08:53.510 The partners that you need in order 00:08:53.510 --> 00:08:55.495 to create that value chain. 00:08:55.495 --> 00:08:58.700 Really think outside of the box in terms of ways that you 00:08:58.700 --> 00:09:02.120 might be able to create ways to scale this, 00:09:02.120 --> 00:09:04.430 so that it's more than 40 kilometers. 00:09:04.430 --> 00:09:05.540 I said that due respect 00:09:05.540 --> 00:09:07.465 Mary because I love the work that she does. 00:09:07.465 --> 00:09:09.770 But even she will tell you that 00:09:09.770 --> 00:09:11.720 at the end of the day this was important for her, 00:09:11.720 --> 00:09:13.190 but not necessarily having 00:09:13.190 --> 00:09:15.240 the regional impact that she was hoping for. 00:09:15.240 --> 00:09:17.240 We're going to be asking you to start 00:09:17.240 --> 00:09:19.910 thinking about the box scaling solutions. 00:09:19.910 --> 00:09:21.740 All of that though, requires 00:09:21.740 --> 00:09:24.730 the beginning of how do we bring these ideas together, 00:09:24.730 --> 00:09:28.350 and for that, I'm going to turn it over to Andy.