Currently, ACORN is undergoing a restructuring process to better equip graduate students to do meaningful, respectful, and impactful research and scientific co-production with and for communities. As such, we are not accepting new project proposals at this time. We anticipate this process will take until at least the end of spring quarter 2025. If you are still interested in engaging with us, either as a student or community partner, please follow up with us at pccacorn@uw.edu at that point to learn more. We will also plan to update this webpage when our restructuring is complete.

About

Actionable Community-Oriented Research eNgagement (ACORN) projects provide opportunities for collaboration between community leaders and graduate students and postdocs across the PCC. Each project addresses an individual climate- and/or energy-related challenge defined by the community, and enables students to enrich their research experience and apply quantitative, analytical, and communication skills beyond the boundaries of their primary academic focus. ACORN builds relationships between the University and members of the wider community to find multidimensional climate and community solutions.

Background

As a node between UW research, graduate education, and community members, the PCC is well positioned to facilitate community science. Members of the PCC Graduate Steering Committee (P-GraSC) created the ACORN program in 2020 in order to identify and advance climate- and energy-related community priorities. Modeled after the American Geophysical Union’s Thriving Earth Exchange framework for community science, ACORN aims to build and support collaboration within and beyond the PCC community.

ACORN projects can be initiated at any time and are coordinated by the P-GraSC ACORN Subcommittee. The subcommittee facilitates the initial process of setting goals and expectations for each project, and continues to support team members for the duration of the project. All projects are done on a volunteer basis.