The Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory
“Our clean water future can be found where science and community meet.”
Pittsburgh is a city of three intersecting rivers, and water flows through all we do here. Not many people think more about water in Pittsburgh than Emily Elliott, professor in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Department of Geology and Environmental Science and director and co-founder of the Pittsburgh Collaboratory for Water Research, Education, and Outreach. Elliott has been connecting universities, local governments, nonprofits and community groups across the region to respond to real needs in water research, governance and action as well as health, education and engineering.
The collaboratory was awarded the 2022 ARIS Impact Goals Award from the Center for Advancing Research Impact in Society (ARIS) for its capacity-building impacts.
Aiming to advance the region’s sustainability and create opportunities for researchers, citizens and governments to connect, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Water Network was formed over the last three years through conversations facilitated by the Water Center at the University of Pennsylvania with funding from the Heinz Endowments. Network members voted to make the Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory the host of the network, alongside Pitt’s Congress of Neighboring Communities (CONNECT) and the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center.