RISE 2019 Conference: Transforming University Engagement in Pre- and Post Disaster Environments: Lessons from Puerto Rico; Albany, New York; November 18-20, 2019

The devastation afflicted by Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths and over $90 billion of economic loss - one of the deadliest disasters on record in US history. In response, faculty and staff from institutions of higher education nationwide traveled to Puerto Rico to provide research, service-learning, humanitarian relief, and student exchange. While these efforts were well intended to help communities in need, the post-Maria experience demonstrated several aspects of the university-community relationship associated with pre- and post-disasters that are seldom analyzed in the disaster literature, and urgently in need of study. In June 2018, University of Puerto Rico researchers spearheaded a gathering of representatives from mainland universities and colleges in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico to discuss the challenges and critical issues facing institutions of higher learning and the communities affected or threatened by extreme weather. The RISE 2019 National Conference, entitled Transforming University Engagement in Pre- and Post-Disaster Environments: Lessons from Puerto Rico, builds upon that initial meeting. Led by 25 institutions of higher education, the University at Albany, State University of New York, in collaboration with the University of Puerto Rico and the National Council of Science and the Environment (NCSE), will hold a 3-day conference at the University at Albany on November 18-20, 2019. The conference will explore how universities and colleges can play a more impactful role in resilience planning and disaster recovery, while bringing to bear the power of higher education under an integrated framework. RISE 2019 will promote the progress of science by building interconnections between academia and numerous sectors of society resulting in knowledge creation, knowledge exchange and future capacity building. Moreover, the conference will fortify our national security in a variety of ways including through 1) enhancing opportunities for future cross-domain, cross-sectorial research, training, and resource sharing that address the growing challenges posed by climate variability and weather extremes; b) fostering a nationwide coalition of partners across academia, government, and industry aimed at transforming higher education in addressing resilience through university hubs of innovation, including digitally connected communities; and c) raising awareness of resiliency resources to help local governments and policy makers advance strategies to mitigate the adverse impacts of extreme weather and climate variability.

The RISE 2019 Conference program will incorporate three roundtables, five keynote/armchair discussions, twelve cohort sessions, and twenty-eight panel discussions. Each session will be aimed at exploring key questions, discussing existing and novel research methodologies and scientific approaches, engaging scholars and practitioners nationwide, while charting new pathways through which the RISE consortium of partners can lead post conference efforts to develop a national e-learning framework for higher education. In so doing, RISE 2019 will serve to broaden awareness of and inform NSF supported research and scholarship through programs such as the Extreme Events Research (EER) Networks, the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI), among other extramurally supported research programs at NSF and beyond. "CONVERGE" is one such example of a significant NSF supported initiative, which serves to coordinate hazards and disaster researchers and link them to the existing NHERI scientific plan, facilities, cyberinfrastructure, and technological resources. Through RISE 2019 conference deliberations, and thereafter, hopes to promote and support the development of a national interdisciplinary and inter-university network of public and private sector partners to tackle the multi-faceted challenges of disaster preparedness, response, recovery, adaptation and overall community resilience. The three-day conference structure is designed to foster the dissemination and exchange of knowledge and discovery, as well as the forging of new scientific collaborations and practitioner partnerships. As a result, RISE 2019 will generate actionable information that will lead to the post conference development of a sustainable national framework for higher education interconnecting with government, industry and nonprofit organizations - one that incorporates best practices, case studies, new knowledge, novel research, shared resources and collaboration mechanisms to be more impactful in pre- and post-disaster environments.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.