Connecting Science with Stakeholders: Lessons from the NASA Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team

The NASA Health and Air Quality Applied Science Team (HAQAST, haqast.org) works to connect satellite data with health and air quality applications, funded by the NASA Applied Sciences Program. To achieve the goals of the team, academic and federal research scientists partner with stakeholder organizations working on health and air quality, in the U.S. and around the world. The team’s structure supports collaboration, communication, and acceleration of applied research on priority issues.

The traditional approach to research takes place on timescales that are too long to support most many real-world data users. HAQAST represents a new model for funding science that increases researcher responsiveness to stakeholder needs, includes stakeholder experts in the research process, and reduces the time for research results and application.

We have adjusted our approach based on lessons learned and feedback gathered from stakeholders, team members, program managers, and meeting attendees. We have found that the success of this type of team depends on building a culture of collaboration, advancing communication with stakeholder communities, and identifying issues where the team structure can provide a rapid response. With additional implementation and assessment, there is the potential for a new model of scientific research funding to extend across organizations and disciplines, connecting advanced research with a range of real-world information needs.

We will present on the structure and goals of the team, as well as lessons learned for other applied research activities. In particular, we will discuss how we grew our communications and outreach activities, developed a culture of collaboration among the scientists, and adapted activities based on stakeholder input and lessons learned. We will discuss metrics and examples of our success, as well as the barriers to measuring the “impact” of an applied research initiative.