UNI part of $13.9 million grant to fight climate change - KGAN TV

UNI part of $13.9 million grant to fight climate change | KGAN

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — The University of Northern Iowa is one of four institutions that will combat climate change as part of a $13.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant funds a program led by the University of Alaska Fairbanks to help multiple communities respond to coastal erosion, flooding, permafrost thaw and other hazards attributed to climate change. The four years of funding, awarded this month, is part of the foundation’s Navigating the New Arctic program.

The funding supports ACTION, a project led by the Alaska Coastal Cooperative at UAF in collaboration with the rural coastal communities, the University of Northern Iowa, Arizona State University and the University of Texas El Paso. The group’s acronym stands for Alaska Coastal Cooperative for Co-producing Transformative Ideas and Opportunities in the North.
“This award is a culmination of years of hard work and effort by many people at UAF and beyond, including our community and institution partners,” Alaska Coastal Cooperative Director Chris Maio said. “It really is an amazing group of experts that we’ve brought together to contribute toward resilient coastal communities in the Arctic.” “To effectively respond to a rapidly changing Arctic, this project will develop and implement an innovative approach to resilience action that identifies community priorities, advances applied convergence science and improves communication and synergy across multiple stakeholder groups,” Maio said.

As a primary project partner, UNI will be engaged in the following project’s tasks:

UNI researchers will lead the project efforts in four communities in the Western Alaska and Aleutian Islands.