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A regional partnership dubbed the "” is one of ten awardees in the unprecedented from the . Each engine is awarded up to $160M over 10 years to drive innovation-based economic development. Our rendition, the CO-WY Climate Resilience Engine, will build climate resilient communities by combining applied research, translation of discoveries into new businesses and real-world solutions, and inclusive workforce development. Our Engine is a collaboration among universities, industry, and economic development organizations across Colorado and Wyoming, including the . I was fortunate to participate in the design and leadership of the Engine and will share some thoughts on what winning this grant means.

Climate change is something that has been in our collective awareness for decades, albeit sometimes as an abstract and future-oriented concept. Presently, however, direct impacts are front-and-center in the Mountain West region and elsewhere; the challenges to communities are unavoidable. Whether we live in rural or urban areas, wildfire, smoke, and drought affect us. Solutions that help communities become more resilient are needed – such as earlier detection and more effective responses to wildfire, improved sensing of emissions that enable new incentives for GHG reductions, and more sustainable use of water. These solutions are just what our Engine will create.

The technical focus of the Engine is on measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) and spans applications in extreme weather, soil carbon capture, earth sensing, methane emissions, water security, and wildfire. These MMRV advancements will be the basis for improved decision making tools, resilience solutions, and incentives like voluntary carbon markets.

NSF’s engines program is unique in how it supports needed innovation. It goes far beyond funding research and technology development, NSF’s historical areas of focus, and supports a holistic approach to ecosystem growth. Innovation ecosystems are of course not new, and well-known examples like the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, and Research Triangle Park arose organically around excellent research universities. Here in Boulder, Colorado, has written extensively about startup communities, where entrepreneurial values are the basis for a thriving ecosystem. By providing this forward-thinking funding opportunity, NSF enables partnerships like the CO-WY Climate Resilience Engine to apply what we know about successful ecosystems (and importantly what we know about our own local ecosystem) and the principles of startup communities to meaningfully accelerate climate resilience.

For the past seven years, our team has been building programs that bridge the gap between promising research and innovative solutions. During that timeframe, we’ve launched 76 startups, attracted $3.7 billion in investment capital (including the creation of CU Boulder’s dedicated venture capital fund, ), and generated billions in economic impact. Now, the Engine is an opportunity to direct our gap-bridging process from research to innovation with a specific focus on climate solutions.

My role in the Engine has included developing the process of what NSF calls “translation of innovation to impact” where the Engine will provide entrepreneurial education, access to early-stage and risk-tolerant funding, founder stipends, and mentorship from seasoned entrepreneurs and industry partners. In essence, we are adding more horsepower to programs and principles that are already tried and true. Whether it’s proof-of-concept funding akin to the from the , founder support through our partner , or Feld’s “founders-first” principle, the CO-WY Climate Resilience Engine is building on a solid foundation of what we know to be effective locally. An important aspect of the Engine is the role of , which led the proposal and will see several key folks from its leadership transition into the Engine. Innosphere is our longstanding partner and has worked closely with us and the other partnering universities to accelerate science-based startups formed out of university labs.

Climate resilience research is a core strength at CU Boulder and the other partnering universities—, the , and . The bold and holistic approach of NSF’s regional innovation engines program, together with a consortium of diverse partner organizations, will help to deliver the promise held within this research, and yield climate resilience solutions so desperately needed in our region and beyond.

Bryn Rees

Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation; Managing Director of Venture Partners at CU Boulder