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THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO

CENTER FOR COLLECTIVE IMPACT IN EARTHQUAKE SCIENCE

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To increase societal resilience to earthquakes through collective impact hazard research

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An interdisciplinary research center rooted in equity, diversity, and engagement that helps communities prepare for, withstand, and recover from earthquakes and associated hazards.

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The Center for Collective Impact in Earthquake Science (C-CIES), a catalyst project funded by the National Science Foundation, is working toward becoming a full-fledged interdisciplinary research center that focuses on high-impact, low-probability events, with an emphasis on community engagement.

C-CIES will develop strategies for better identifying, and potentially quantifying, seismic hazards and will inform many aspects of fundamental earthquake science of broad importance. Using collective impact, C-CIES’s research will prioritize the needs of vulnerable populations that have been historically underserved by current earthquake science, engineering, and public policy. To accomplish its vision and mission, C-CIES will solicit and fund pilot projects that will address critical earthquake science questions with strong social impact and community engagement plans.

The pilot projects will be evaluated using the five elements of collective impact: common agenda, mutually reinforcing activities, shared metrics, constant communication, and a backbone organization. These pilot projects will serve as case studies to help develop a strategic plan for how to structure the new center. The projects will also examine the novel topic of citizen science of hazards, along with the ripple effects of diversifying citizen science. We believe a new center using this approach will transform how earthquake and associated hazard science is being conducted, leading to fundamental breakthroughs that will profoundly and positively impact communities throughout the country.

Our plan is to develop leading edge earthquake research projects that reach deeply into our communities, and in doing so, the input we receive from these communities will help guide the science that we conduct.”
- Aaron Velasco, Ph.D.
Professor of earth, environmental and resource sciences at The University of Texas at El Paso

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Advance basic earthquake science and engineering

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Establish a foundation for sharing value-driven understanding of science

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Be responsive to the needs of communities through use-inspired research

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Recruit, retain and train the next generation of diverse earth scientists

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Improve resilience and reduce risk from seismic hazards

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. 2225395. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.