The Midwest Climate Research Agenda aims to bridge the gap between research and practice, as well as listening to and understanding questions and challenges from practitioners and researchers. As we seek to identify key climate questions that will advance our understanding of climate impacts and solutions in the Midwest, we envision this process as a collaborative one involving cross-sectoral stakeholder engagement across the region. We see the work progressing in three phases.
Phase I
During the first phase we:
- Assessed current literature
- Developed a Project Working Group
- Developed an online portal for question submission
Phase II
In the second phase, we hosted a multi-sectoral workshop to review and narrow down the questions generated.
Phase III
The third phase is the publication and distribution of the key questions.
Spring 2023 Update
- Since the launch of the research agenda portal in March 2022, about 200 climate questions/ideas were generated from across the Midwest.
- These research questions were reviewed and synthesized by working group members based on the following topic areas: Agriculture, Biodiversity & Ecosystems, Building & Transportation, Community, Energy, and Human Health.
- In January and February 2023, online and in-person workshops were held respectively. At these workshops, through a collaborative effort, researchers, practitioners, knowledge users representing academia, industry, local government, NGOs, and interested individuals participated in identifying research priorities.
- Following the workshops, the working group continued the process of reviewing and refining the questions to produce a curated list of climate research questions.
- This collaborative effort aims to bridge the gap between research and practice.
- For additional information, contact MidwestClimateCollaborative@wustl.edu
