Collaboratory Aiming for What Water Can Be
From left: Emily Elliott, Hailey McGarrity
In the same way a watercourse guides and shapes the flow of moving water, the Pittsburgh Collaboratory for Water Research, Education, and Outreach is reliant on its community-based collaborators to successfully navigate the serious and complex regional challenges resulting from sewage overflow, aging infrastructure, and industrial contamination.
“We wanted community engagement to be front and center with everything we do,” says co-founder Emily Elliott, professor in the Dietrich School’s Department of Geology and Environmental Science.
Five years ago, Elliott and a handful of peers felt that their research wasn’t getting to those who could use it most, and they couldn’t get a foothold in regional and local conversations about water. Graduate students and faculty were frustrated.
“This is just not enough,” Elliott thought. “Doing important research, publishing it in a journal—it doesn’t matter. It’s not making a difference.”
Five faculty members proposed a pilot program to The Heinz Endowments. Now the Water Collaboratory is a network of faculty members in disciplines from economics to engineering, with the majority residing in the Department of Geology and Environmental Science. They support a dozen graduate students and work with more than 100 community partners. Investigators have so far received more than $7 million in funding from the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies.
In 2022, nominated by the Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Research, the Water Collaboratory was awarded the Center for Advancing Research Impact in Society Impact Goals award for its commitment to benefiting society by making data and expertise accessible to those who need it; ensuring that research responds to real needs; and preparing students to solve real-world challenges.
Partnerships with community groups, such as Women for a Healthy Environment, have led to the collection of more and better-quality empirical data—facts and figures that can be used to further science, lobby for resources, and help continue to drive positive change. The Water Collaboratory and partners have made scientific findings, revealed inequities and neglect, and are crafting an image of what the future of water in the region could be.