Changemaker
The Innovation Incubator is an ASPIRE program for academic institutional leaders who interact directly with geoscience faculty, and who are committed to actively promoting community-engaged science and those doing it. We call these leaders Changemakers.
ASPIRE is based on the belief that the geosciences can become richer, deeper, more exciting, more diverse and more relevant through the inclusion of community-forward, community-focused science.
We seek to combine the needs and knowledge resident in place-based, heritage-based, and of-practice communities with the strengths and rigors of solutions-oriented geoscience. Academic institutions must deepen their connections with society and communities, making the work of science and science products broadly valued. Changemaker cohorts focus on this challenge, innovating actions, strategies and solutions that daylight tangible benefits for members of the Academy and for society at large.
Program Shape
The Incubator is composed of an annual cohort of 6-8 changemakers engaged with ASPIRE PIs and staff in four interactive activities:
• In person, 2-day brainstorming retreat collectively uncovering institutional structures supporting/impeding community-engaged science, and brainstorming testable actions and strategies to support early career scholars pursuing community-engaged research. Each changemaker will commit to testing at least two actions in their academic unit.
• Quarterly Zoom sessions focused on group-supported adaptive management of changemaker action-testing.
• Feedback sessions with early career scholars engaged in the ASPIRE Immersive Institute and subsequent ASPIRE Working Groups; and with community voices interacting in our Virtual Discussion Series (VDS) .
• Creation of a “living protocol” of action outcomes as a function of institution type and changemaker position in the leadership hierarchy.
Eligibility
ASPIRE seeks academics who:
• Hold leadership positions in their institutions bringing them into constant contact with geoscience faculty (e.g., department chairs, institute directors).
• Value community-engaged work.
• Want to explore policy and structural change to enable and foster the growth of early career scholars conducting community-engaged research.
• Can commit to a 2-year cohort term, including an initial 2-day in person retreat and subsequent quarterly zoom cohort check-ins.
Time Commitment
• 3-5 hours of pre-work prior to the first in person meeting
• A 2-day in person retreat once annually (likely in Seattle)
• 90-minute quarterly meetings over the 2-year period
• Time spent during normal working hours testing and documenting the success|failure of self-selected actions and strategies
• (not required) Changemakers are invited to working sessions organized annually at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) December meeting, and to participate in an annual ASPIRE gathering.
Participants will receive a modest stipend and travel expenses.
More Information
If you have questions about the Innovation Incubator, contact Julia Parrish (jparrish@uw.edu) or Anastasia Schemkes (als25@uw.edu).
