UW Project Garners NSF Funding Via CO-WY Engine to Study Weather Extremes and Water Security

A groundbreaking research project proposed by a University of Wyoming professor secured National Science Foundation (NSF) funding this week through the Colorado-Wyoming Climate Resilience Engine (CO-WY Engine).

UW Professor Bart Geerts, in the Department of Atmospheric Science, is the principal investigator (PI) of the one-year, $300,000 project. UW Assistant Professor Stefan Rahimi and Colorado State University Associate Professor Kristen Rasmussen are co-PIs. The award was jointly announced this month as part of a total of $3 million for the CO-WY Engine by Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.

"This is absolutely amazing to be chosen among so many proposals to the CO-WY Engine evaluated for funding," Geerts says. "Climate resilience problems are at the forefront of needs to be addressed throughout the U.S., especially in the Rocky Mountain region. In this first year of funding, we will build a framework that can deliver tailor-made projections of long-term changes in climate parameters, especially precipitation, snowpack, flooding events and droughts."

He adds that the project directly builds on experience gained working with an interdisciplinary team on the UW campus called WyACT (Wyoming Anticipating the Climate/Water Transition). WyACT partners with Wyoming communities, practitioners and decision-makers to understand, anticipate and prepare for significant changes in climate and water and the impacts of those changes on interconnected human and natural systems.

The CO-WY Engine, among several NSF Regional Innovation Engines in the nation, is chartered to identify and support groundbreaking climate resilience projects in each of the two states. It launched its first round of investments in research, development and startup projects this year with funding from the NSF's Regional Innovation Engines program. Interdisciplinary, collaborative teams from across the region's leading universities and startup companies submitted requests for proposals, including that of Geerts, Rahimi and Rasmussen.