Research Coordination Network: Fostering Cross-Disciplinary Research on Energy Development

Ohio State University, The, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

SES-1528422 Jeffrey Jacquet South Dakota State University The rapid proliferation and intensification of energy development across North America has generated new research about social and economic impacts to host communities from a diversity of academic disciplines. This diversity represents the multi-dimensional nature of social impacts from energy development but demands coordination and integration among social science perspectives. This research network expands the capacity of social scientists to measure and analyze the impacts of energy development in host landscapes and communities through the development of shared conceptual frameworks and metrics. Based at South Dakota State University and supported by Montana State University, the Research Coordination Network (RCN)features a steering committee of leading energy development experts from multiple social science disciplines. Using in-person and virtual forums, the network will support researchers in discussing, evaluating and coordinating social science energy research. The network will deliver a cluster of curricular resources directed at non-expert audiences such as high school and university undergraduate students, local officials, and affected residents. The RCN will provide policy makers, community officials, and energy company officials with an integrated social science approach to understand and mitigate adverse effects of energy development, while specific protocols are identified to encourage participation of diverse and underrepresented populations. A strategic project advisory board drawn from industry and government will help the network consider how research can be more relevant and defensible to decision makers, enabling better informed, more effective energy development planning and policy. This RCN is driven by the following hypothesis: The measurement and analysis of social impacts can be coordinated across diverse forms of energy development and academic discipline, and doing so will increase the utility of social science and improve societal capacity to address the unprecedented opportunities and challenges of the current energy transformation. The goals of this research network are to 1) foster a diverse cross-disciplinary research community; 2) develop and promote a set of data collection standards, framing concepts, and longitudinal design to allow for comparison of data acquired across energy landscapes; and 3) disseminate syntheses and data and design standards to inform policy dialogues and undergraduate curricula. This project will advance scientific understanding in the following ways: (1) Networked scholars will foster the compatibility of currently disparate social, economic and geographic energy-impact theoretical frameworks through new synthetic, conceptual work. (2) Strategic planning of new data collection and analytical techniques will achieve novel discoveries across multiple settings and fill chronic gaps in social science energy research. (3) Appropriate standardization of research design across regions and disciplines will increase compatibility and comparability of data and results, reducing redundancy and increasing robustness of collected data and reliability of results.