CONVERGE Leadership Corps

Leadership Corps for Natural Hazards Research

One of the tasks of the CONVERGE initiative is to create and support the first-ever Leadership Corps for natural hazards research.

The Leadership Corps includes the principal investigators of the National Science Foundation-supported EER networks (GEER, SSEER, StEER, NEER, OSEEER, SUMMEER, PHEER, and ISEEER) and the leaders of National Science Foundation-Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NSF-NHERI) Network Coordination Office, RAPID Reconnaissance Facility, DesignSafe, and CONVERGE.

There are many well-established networks doing important work in the natural hazards reconnaissance space. The CONVERGE Leadership Corps, however, is dedicated to linking the National Science Foundation-supported EERs and the NSF-NHERI components that facilitate and advance the work of the natural hazards reconnaissance and research communities.

The CONVERGE Leadership Corps is working together to:

• Develop an internal operations manual to clarify how the principal investigators of the NSF- and CDC-supported EER’s and NHERI components will work together in the event of a major disaster.
• Develop an outward-facing research response plan to support the coordination of research teams and to clarify the ways that researchers can most effectively interface with local, state, and federal authorities, industry partners, and the nonprofit sector.
• Develop best practice guidance for rapid response disaster research through the publication of the CONVERGE Extreme Events Check Sheets series and the CONVERGE Training Modules.
• Write a science plan to inform future interdisciplinary rapid response disaster research investigations.
• Assume shared responsibility for internal and external messaging and communications during extreme events research missions that involve large numbers of engineers and social scientists.