Research is the Very Thing We Need for All Communities
In January, the Office of Management and Budget paused grant making. This includes the projected $200.4 billion allocated to federal R&D funding. Every day that goes by without providing funding to current or future grants, is a day of delay in receiving evidence-based solutions to make our world better. Not until I came to MetroLab did I so concretely think about research. Why would I? I’m not a researcher. I’m not an academic. Before the time of AI, I would just google something. But even Google started from an investment in science. One of the world’s most ubiquitous tools was started because of a research grant.
As the US government considers reshaping its approach to innovation, how it delivers services, or even if a service should exist, supporting research — and the impacts it brings — is critical. Research is itself an agent of change.
Our communities are grappling with serious challenges like wildfires in Los Angeles, flooding in North Carolina, and extreme heat in Arizona. And housing, mental health, and transportation are complex problems in communities across the US, urban and rural alike.
MetroLab brings together the research community and local governments. We do this because we believe that when these two institutions work together, it results in catalytic change. And we do this because frankly, we need to bridge these efforts. As funding is on pause, now it’s urgent to highlight how research is supporting priority issues. So let’s start right now. Here are fifteen examples of how research is working on issues that impact the majority of us:
Weather Event Response
- Researchers at Portland State University found that wildfire smoke residue can linger for weeks after exposure. Why does this matter? The chemicals that hang around are associated with increased cancer risk. Here are several recommendations on how to clean and what to do after exposure.
- And here is a review of California evacuation plans in the event of a fire by UC Berkeley from 2017–2019.
- The University of Houston worked to improve the effectiveness of food distribution with food banks in the event of a hurricane or extreme weather event.
- Responding to wildfires in Los Angeles, the UCLA Institute for Transportation issued a call to quickly collect proposals for research to support wildfire recovery.
- Arizona State University led an initiative to put together a plan for Governor Hobbs that is now the State’s Extreme Heat Preparedness Plan.
- The University of Nebraska Extension Office has resources for families and communities to recover from disasters, including floods and wildfires.
Housing
- Notre Dame studied low cost interventions that can reduce the energy burdens on low income housing and prepare for more extreme weather.
- The University of Washington published a report called “Finding Common Ground” that examines state-level policy best practices for transit-oriented development. The work was funded by Challenge Seattle and led by the Washington Center for Real Estate Research. The result led to a more data-driven conversation in Olympia to promote legislation to address portions of housing needs.
- The University of Missouri Kansas City used imagery and structure data from multiple sources, and applied deep learning to detect and measure abandoned houses. This study details an approach that can be applied to other neighborhoods and communities.
- The University of Miami published recommendations for urban areas suffering from water shortages and drought to create better, water-efficient plumbing and appliances.
- Portland State University produced a study on turnkey shelters to support homelessness (in this case, purchasing local motels and turning them into shelters with services). “The study points to a model that is missing in many communities and that is key to efforts to help people move from homelessness to more appropriate and stable housing and increase their well-being more generally.”
Rural Communities + Resources
- The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, analyzed over 700 steel grain bins in the aftermath of the derecho. This research identified several factors that impact grain bins’ levels of vulnerability to extreme wind, including bin capacity and size, exposure level, and the design features of vertical stiffeners and roof venting. Findings from this research have important implications for the design standards of grain bins in the United States and, more broadly, U.S. food production, agricultural economies, and the resilience of rural communities to natural disaster.
- Fort Hays University in Kansas is focusing on the needs of victims of domestic violence, including this study. A key finding is the critical intersection between housing instability and mental health outcomes for survivors. Many rural victims encounter significant barriers in securing safe and affordable housing, which in turn exacerbates psychological distress, trauma, and long-term mental health concerns.
Community
- A team at Vanderbilt University created a technology to empower neurodiverse individuals by providing adaptive driver education. It gives autistic and other neurodiverse adults the independence in transportation needed to access educational and employment opportunities — and was enabled by grants from NIH and NSF. Neurodiverse people constitute 15–20% of the population; fully enabling their contributions to the economy would represent more than $100 billion annually of economic productivity.
- Over 137 million people in the US live in areas with unhealthy levels of outdoor air pollution. Children and student athletes are particularly vulnerable to elevated air pollution levels because their lungs are not fully developed, and they have more rapid breathing rates. Current air quality forecasts and measurements fail to protect them from critical air quality hazards, like dust and wildfire smoke. Supported by an NSF Civic Innovation Challenge grant, The University of Utah partnered with K-12 communities and the Utah High School Activities Association to develop cost-effective sensors that are producing actionable air quality information to help reduce exposure to air pollutant hazards, particularly for children and youth participating in athletics.
MetroLab, a non-profit that aims to equip local governments with research, has interviewed dozens of academics across the country. One question we ask them is what myth they would like to bust. What is something about a researcher’s reputation folks have wrong? Time and again, the most common response is to rid the notion of an ivory tower; they want everyone to know that the people behind the federal research grants are doing the work because they care about their community.
While most of us aren’t directly involved in the ecosystem of academic research, we are its beneficiary. Is there work to be done in better disseminating findings? Yes. Do we have work to do in making civic research actionable? We do. But the research outcomes supported by federal investments are what is moving communities of every type forward. Let’s turn the dial up, and open doors instead of closing them by fully funding research endeavors and the communities that can support them.
