An interdisciplinary team of USF researchers is competing in stage 1 of the Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) for a potential award of up to $1 million to support implementation of “community-driven, research-based pilot projects that address mobility and resilience priorities.”

The competition, hosted by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), awarded 56 teams across the nation—“Community of Practice” cohorts as they have been called—from both civic and academic partners with a planning grant of $50,000 to support the launch of stage 1 of their pilot projects.

The projects are focused on either one of two tracks: “Living in a Changing Climate” or “Resource and Service Equity,” according to the CIVIC website.

The NSF, DOE and DHS will announce stage 2 teams in Spring 2023 for the opportunity to each receive $1 million, one-year awards to implement their pilot projects.

USF College of Public Health’s Elizabeth Dunn, an instructor and doctoral student specializing in disaster preparedness, is working as a co-principal investigator with an interdisciplinary USF team of faculty and students from the USF College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). 

Dr. Ran Tao, associate professor in the CAS School of Geosciences, is serving as principal investigator, and Dr. Kaiqi Xiong, professor in the CAS Department of Mathematics and Statistics, is another co-principal investigator for the project.

They are working in collaboration with a local digital marketplace for buying local, homegrown food, lemonGRAFT, which was developed by two USF College of the Arts (COA) School of Architecture and Community Design alumni, Zach Correa and William Cook.

The project also consists of doctorate, master’s, and undergraduate students, including Yuzhou Chen (PhD, geosciences), Carmen Gutierrez (MPH, epidemiology), Nagashree Ravi Rao (MPH, biostatistics), Kayleigh Murray (undergraduate, public health and statistics), Aleeza Masood (undergraduate, public health), and Hannah Harburg (undergraduate, public health).

Dunn said over four months, all partners, including lemonGRAFT, Tampa Fire Rescue, the Hillsborough County Office of Emergency Management, UF/IFAS Extension, the Well Built City and several organizations in the food sector, are coming together to move forward on the planning during the pilot stage.  

“Our project focuses on addressing food insecurity following the impact of a natural disaster by developing a GIS-based decentralized digital platform with special considerations for socially vulnerable populations,” Dunn said. “This web-based mapping platform will crowdsource real-time information, identify at-risk neighborhoods, and match the surged food demand with local food growers and suppliers through a sharing economy business model.”

Dunn said this project is designed to strengthen the local food system in Hillsborough County, while providing “a robust solution to healthy food access for pre-disaster preparation and as a mitigation measure to strengthen the agri-food supply chain during a disaster that can then be scaled up to the rest of the United States.”

Dunn said, post-Hurricane Ian, one of the major issues noted was lack of food access to homebound individuals who could not travel to a food distribution site because they were either trapped or did not have a vehicle to get there.

“So, we are trying to use a GIS mapping system to have a more fluid way to figure out how to get food into those neighborhoods,” she said.

Dunn said the interdisciplinary nature of the project gives them an edge and provides a unique way of solving the post-disaster issue of food insecurity.

“Through this project, we highlight how to leverage technology in times where people are needing access to resources,” she said. “Using a map-based system provides more of a visual understanding of where the needs are and where to mobilize resources. This gives a unique opportunity to look at vulnerable populations and local food system that will be impacted in times of disaster.”

Stage 1 awards were granted in October 2022 and will run through March 2023.

Learn more about the CIVIC competition on their website.

Story by Anna Mayor, USF College of Public Health