Become a Community Science Partner with the Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring
The Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring provides communities with technical and stipend support for the co-development of a community-based heat data collection campaign. We expect to support 10 communities per year for the next three years, beginning in 2025.
Communities selected for funding will work closely with one of the CCHM’s four regional hubs (the Museum of Life and Science (Durham, NC), the Museum of Science (Boston, MA), Arizona Science Center, and the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry.
Technical support on data collection, analysis, and modeling for all communities will be provided by AQUEHS Corp., CAPA Strategies, The North Carolinaa State Climate Office, and Utah State University.
Applications for 2025 Community Science Partners will open on November 1, 2024 and close on at 11:59 PM EST (UTC -5:00) on Friday, January 17, 2025.
Submit an Expression of Interest by Nov. 15!
Communities who are interested in this opportunity are encouraged to submit an “expression of interest.” Communities who submit an expression of interest by Nov. 15 will have the opportunity to be matched with a “mentor” community who can provide non-technical guidance on how to prepare an application and share their experiences with participatory science.
Please note: the expression of interest is just to let us know that you are interested and connect you with this additional source of support. You can still apply for funding even if you do not submit an expression of interest.
Learn more by watching this video:
Who is eligible to apply?
Any community in the United States that is interested in learning more about heat is eligible to apply for this opportunity. Rural communities, territories, and Tribal communities are especially encouraged to apply.
The CCHM will prioritize applications submitted by communities who have experienced historical patterns of discrimination, underinvestment, and disenfranchisement, and have limited resources to conduct heat monitoring on their own.
How will my application be evaluated?
The CCHM will evaluate applications based on the following criteria:
How well does the community fit into the Center’s goals to serve Justice40 communities?
Does the community have questions or concerns that could be answered with a collaborative approach to heat monitoring?
Does the applicant organization have the capacity to mobilize this community and successfully complete a heat monitoring campaign?
What are the expectations of a Community Science Partner?
Every community that participates in a CCHM campaign will need one principal organization that will lead the campaign, preferably in addition to several partner organizations that can assist with outreach and other tasks. We call this organization a “Community Science Partner.”
Community Science Partners will be expected to:
Collaborate with the CCHM to co-create a participatory heat monitoring campaign
Help with planning, logistics, and volunteer outreach
Identify a “lead organizer” or point of contact to organize the campaign
Receive initial training from the CCHM and train additional community participants
Collect heat data during the heat season following the award (i.e., 2025 heat season for awards announced in Feb. 2025) and transmit data to the CCHM team
Contribute to discussions on modeling, visualizations, and decision support
Provide follow-up reporting on how the data was used
Participate in a community of practice which may include responding to requests to support or advise future applicants
What are the expectations of a lead organizer?
Lead organizers are individuals who serve as a point of contact with the CCHM and will work closely with the CCHM and NOAA to manage the day-to-day operations of a campaign. Lead organizers should expect to dedicate at least 20-25 hours each week from April through the campaign date. This includes attending bi-weekly meetings with the CCHM to go over campaign information. Organizers' roles might also include recruiting volunteers, coordinating logistics, communicating with the CCHM and its technical partners, receiving and distributing equipment, leading or coordinating training, and reporting key metrics to the CCHM.
FAQs
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The Center recognizes that community may be defined in many ways. The CCHM uses the Justice40 definition of community as “either a group of individuals living in geographic proximity to one another, or a geographically dispersed set of individuals (such as migrant workers or Native Americans), where either type of group experiences common conditions.” Additionally, the CCHM recognizes the ASTC definition of community as “any connected or organized group of people who share a common geography, jurisdiction, set of characteristics, interests, or goals—not just a particular racial or ethnic group or ZIP code.”
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We do not expect communities to have data or scientific expertise on heat in order to apply. We value indigenous knowledge, as well as a community members’ lived experience, as equally valid ways of knowing about heat and its effects. We are particularly interested in working with communities who show us that they are interested in developing new knowledge that can be used to promote heat resilience.
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Through our partner, CAPA Strategies, the CCHM can support communities who want to collect data on ambient temperature, particulate matter (PM2.5), or wet bulb globe temperature (WGBT). The CCHM does not have the capacity, technology, or expertise to collect other kinds of data related to heat at this time, such as health data (e.g. emergency room admissions) or data such as water temperature.
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The CCHM provides a one-time $10,000 stipend to communities as a way to broadly acknowledge the substantial time, labor, and resources that will be required to conduct a successful heat monitoring campaign. Communities will have some flexibility in how they can use the funds. In general, the use of funds should be connected to the needs of the campaign. For example, stipends could be used to pay coordinators or organizers, purchase food and water for volunteers working on hot days, or to provide childcare to expand access to community members who could not otherwise participate. Stipends cannot be used to purchase alcohol or entertainment.
At minimum, to receive the money, applicants must be a formally incorporated organization (e.g. a 501(c)(3) or similar) that can accept funds.
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In addition to financial and technical support for a heat monitoring campaign and community science, the CCHM can help facilitate connections to other federal agencies in the NIHHIS network.
Community Science Partners will also be invited to join a robust community of practice that began with participants in the Urban Heat Islands program. Communities will have opportunities to connect with other communities funded by the same hub, as well as other communities funded in the same cohort. -
Heat data collected through CCHM campaigns is funded by taxpayer dollars, and is generally expected to be shared with the public. The CCHM is committed to balancing a commitment to open science with respect for the sovereignty of Tribal communities around the gathering of data that involves indigenous knowledge. If you have concerns about privacy and/or data sovereignty that would affect your ability to participate in the CCHM, please contact us before submitting your application.
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Technical support will be available during the application process. The CCHM will host a joint webinar with our sister Center of Excellence, the Center for Heat Resilient Communities, on Nov. 21. The CCHM will also host open Q&A sessions (“office hours”) to describe the opportunity in more detail and answer questions from prospective applicants. Follow this link to register for webinars or office hours and review our comprehensive FAQ.
Paperwork Reduction Act and Privacy Act Notices
The collection of Heat Mapping information is authorized under the OMB Control Number included in the Citizen Science & Crowdsourcing Information Collection page.
PRA Burden Statement:
A Federal agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, nor shall a person be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with an information collection subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 unless the information collection has a currently valid OMB Control Number. The approved OMB Control Number for the Citizen Science & Crowdsourcing information collection is 0648-0828. Without this approval, we could not conduct these information collections. NOAA recognizes that the PRA does apply to its Citizen Science & Crowdsourcing information collections and OMB approval is pending. In the interim, OMB is permitting NOAA to conduct those collections. Public reporting for these information collections is estimated to be between one minute and 8 hours per response depending on the
project, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the information collection. All responses to this information collection are voluntary. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this information collection, including suggestions for reducing this burden to the NOAA Citizen Science Office at citizenscience@noaa.gov.
Privacy Act Statement:
Authority: The collection of this information is authorized under 5 U.S.C. § 301, Departmental regulations which authorizes the operations of an executive agency, including the creation, custodianship, maintenance and distribution of records, and 15 U.S.C. 1512, Powers and duties of the Department.
Purpose: NOAA is collecting this information to help meet its mission to understand and predict changes in climate, weather, ocean, and coasts, to share that knowledge and information with others, and to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources. NOAA collects limited information, such as name, address, phone number, or email address for a variety of purposes. This information will be used to respond to user inquiries or provide services requested by the user.
Routine Uses: Disclosure of this information is permitted under the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. Section 552a) to be shared among Department staff for work-related purposes. Disclosure of this information is also subject to all of the published routine uses as identified in the Privacy Act System of Records Notice COMMERCE/NOAA-11, Contact Information for Members of the Public Requesting or Providing Information Related to NOAA’s Mission, and COMMERCE/DEPT-23, Information Collected Electronically in Connection with Department of Commerce Activities, Events, and Programs.
Disclosure: Furnishing this information is voluntary. By providing this information, you are consenting to the use of that information only for the purpose for which it is submitted.