Civic Innovation Challenge 3.0

This project will provide support to the third round of NSF’s Civic Innovation Challenge (“CIVIC 3.0”) program, a “research and action” competition driven by community priorities. MetroLab will provide the NSF with support to grow CIVIC’s impact, and provide outreach, capacity building, and programming, while elevating this unique program to the greater civic research ecosystem. MetroLab’s work will foster a Community of Practice, enabling and elevating the work of the teams receiving CIVIC awards. This effort will continue to support on-the-ground partnerships that translate research into action, bringing science directly into the lives of local communities. MetroLab’s role will ensure programmatic continuity, while growing partnerships between NSF and community partners, local governments, and philanthropy.

This proposal aims to produce direct impact in three specific ways by: 1. supporting projects with funding (provided by NSF) and organizational structure that ensures projects achieve their maximum potential at advancing technical and social scientific knowledge while also impacting communities; 2. strengthening collaboration between and across researchers and communities, thereby ensuring successful future collaboration, enhancing the quality of future NSF proposals, and creating a more efficient fusion of research capabilities and community priorities; and 3. contributing toward a more coherent civic ecosystem by providing a mechanism that builds networks between projects and project support organizations (i.e. funders, content and methods specialists, and thought leaders) and that provides a basis for alignment among civic ecosystem actors. One of the key intellectual outcomes of CIVIC programming is understanding where the choke points are for getting research to communities, learning how communities understand and implement these research outcomes, and overall are helping constituents, see and understand the value of funding, science, technology, and innovation, because they can see a direct impact in their day-to-day life. The intention of CIVIC 3.0 is to continue to improve communities across the US by helping research universities work directly with community partners and others on the ground that are responding to and searching for solutions to better their lives with science.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.