Workshop Shares MicroFEWS Project Progress

ACEP researcher Erin Whitney and Institute of Northern Engineering Director Bill Schnabel recently participated in a National Science Foundation workshop in Washington, D.C. The workshop was held for grantees in NSF's Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water program.

Whitney and Schnabel are part of a UAF-led project examining and quantifying the impacts of renewable energy on food and water security in remote Arctic and sub-Arctic communities. The title of their project is "Coupling Infrastructure Improvements to Food-Energy-Water System Dynamics in Small Cold Region Communities: MicroFEWS" (NSF Award No. 1740075).

The purpose of the workshop was to bring together all NSF INFEWS grantees from around the nation to share progress, ideas, and collaboration opportunities. Whitney and Schnabel identified a number of potential research partners for the Alaska project and participated in discussions about data science, social science integration, public-private partnerships and interdisciplinary team dynamics.

Poster created for the MicroFEWS project update. Photo by Erin Whitney/ACEP.