The Year in Brief
The goal of the STEPS Institute is to facilitate long-term collaborations in
environmental research, linking insights and approaches from science, technology,
engineering, policy, and society. During the first full year of operation,
the STEPS Institute began the process of translating that goal into multiple
interdisciplinary collaborations at UCSC. The Institute has:
- facilitated the development of interdisciplinary
environmental research groups within UCSC
- assisted in the development of public forums
on environmental research
- articulated to multiple audiences on the West
Coast the breadth of environmental research at UCSC
- laid the groundwork to help further integrate
environmental research at UCSC and link it to related research
and policy-making regionally, nationally, and internationally
Interdisciplinary Environmental Research Groups
 Although everyone agrees that interdisciplinary
collaborations are crucial to answering major environmental questions,
most research institutions are not set up in ways that facilitate
the development of these collaborations. UCSC created the STEPS
Institute to help overcome those hurdles, building on a long
history of interdisciplinary approaches throughout our university.
The STEPS Institute is providing routes to interdisciplinary collaboration
through a protocol that focuses on the early stages in the development of innovative
research groups. These are the stages during which it is most difficult for
developing groups to find the money, time, and organizational commitment to
bring together researchers, policy makers, and managers who share similar goals
but differ in their expertise.
The STEPS Approach: Facilitating Interdisciplinary
Research
- The Institute has taken on the responsibility
of helping UCSC faculty overcome the major initial hurdles in
interdisciplinary research through a three-step process:
Faculty hoping to develop interdisciplinary research groups on a major environmental
question work with the Institute to build links among individual researchers
and research groups throughout the campus.
- Each interdisciplinary group then meets for a
full-day workshop at UCSC to find common ground and hone realistic
goals.
- The Institute then helps with the early stages
of follow-up to keep the momentum going after the initial workshop
until the group is well underway and in a position to seek external
funding. This can include a variety of mechanisms, including
a follow-up workshop here at UCSC or elsewhere and funding for
a graduate student, postdoctoral fellowship, or intern who helps
build direct links among research groups.
In this way, UCSC has made a commitment to help faculty go beyond the last
minute and temporary collaborations that often result from calls for proposals
by agencies and foundations. By investing in the establishment of long-term
interdisciplinary collaborations, UCSC will further its ability to help environmental
researchers make novel contributions to complex environmental questions.
Moreover, these long-term collaborations will allow UCSC faculty to compete
strongly for external interdisciplinary funding.
During the past year, the Institute helped establish two interdisciplinary
research groups:
1) Regional Climate Change and California Water Management
 The Institute helped bring together UCSC faculty working on climate change
and water management and link them to decision makers and water managers throughout
California. The initial workshop included faculty from the Division of Physical
and Biological Sciences, the Division of Social Sciences, and the Baskin School
of Engineering. In addition, it included the State of California chief hydrologist
and representatives of nearly all the major state and regional water agencies
throughout California. The workshop focused on ways of linking university research
on regional climate change and water policy with the needs of the decision
makers in water management.
Specific outcomes. The workshop has produced new research collaborations and
direct links to water districts throughout the State. For example, regional
climate modelers in the Division of Physical and Biological Sciences are now
working with applied mathematicians in the Baskin School of Engineering on
procedures for statistical evaluation of climate models. In turn, those faculty
are involved in follow-up discussions with state water managers. Collaborations
are proceeding with two water agencies—one urban and one regional—to
further integrate regional climate modeling and uncertainty modeling into agency
management decisions.
2) Rapidly Changing Biodiversity in Coastal Environments
The Institute organized a workshop of researchers and land managers working
throughout the biologically diverse regions of the Santa Lucia Range south
of Monterey Bay. This is one of the most biologically rich regions of North
America, with sharp environmental gradients crossing the land/sea interface.
It is also a jurisdictionally complex area, including a mosaic of private,
state, federal, and non-profit landowners. This combination of biological and
social complexity makes it perfect as an exemplar of how interdisciplinary
research on science, technology, engineering, policy, and society can contribute
to the maintenance of biodiversity in a rapidly changing world.
The workshop brought together UCSC terrestrial and
marine researchers, including the Partnership for Interdisciplinary
Studies in Coastal Oceans, and colleagues from UC Berkeley, the
UC Reserve System, UC Big Creek Reserve, UC Hastings Reserve, Nature
Conservancy, U.S. Forest Service, National Marine Fisheries Service,
California State Parks, Big Sur Land Trust, Santa Lucia Conservancy,
Ventana Wilderness Society, The Watershed Institute, California
Coastal Commission, and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
 Specific outcomes. The workshop has resulted in a developing
network of researchers called the Santa Lucia Gradient Study (SLGS) as
a multi-university and multi-organization collaborative project. The
network now has a contact list and a list of research priorities for
each of the component research groups. In addition, during summer 2003
two interns, one working at UCSC and one at UC Hastings Reserve, began
developing a meta-database of research databases on biodiversity in the
Santa Lucia mountains held by all the component organizations. As a result
of this process the STEPS Institute has been invited to participate in
a Packard Foundation-initiated working group on the development of coastal
reserves along the Central Coast of California. In addition, the Institute
and the UCSC Arboretum are now working together to develop ways of creatively
communicating at the Arboretum the results of this collaboration to the
broader public.
Public Forums on Environmental Research
 Through the efforts of Chancellor MRC Greenwood, UCSC has established the annual
Fred Keeley Lecture on Environmental Policy. These annual lectures will begin
during the coming academic year, and the Institute will assist in organizing
these events.
UCSC was fortunate to hold this past spring a Foundation lecture by the renowned
photographer Frans Lanting on his forthcoming book, entitled Life: A Work In
Progress. In conjunction with the event, the STEPS Institute organized a faculty
panel that highlighted UCSC research on the evolution and ecological diversification
of life.
The Institute also organized its first annual by-invitation STEPS
Executive Leadership Briefing, during which UCSC faculty present
cutting edge research
to high-level policy makers and decision leaders. This year’s briefing
focused on two issues: the current state of approaches to biodiversity research,
and the current state of water management research in California as it relates
to climate change.
 Ongoing Discussions Throughout
the University
Throughout
the year, discussions have continued with individual faculty
campus-wide to bring an even wider range of UCSC faculty
into these interdisciplinary efforts.
These discussions have now included faculty across more than a dozen UCSC
departments and multiple centers and institutes.
STEPS Presentations Outside the
University
John Thompson and Brent Haddad made presentations on the STEPS Institute and
interdisciplinary environmental research at UCSC to a broad range of groups
outside the university during the past year. These included presentations to
federal and state legislators, UCSC alumni, UC system-wide forums on environmental
research, funding agencies, and private foundations, including meetings in
Sacramento, Seattle, Berkeley, and Monterey.
Building for the Future
Over the past year, the Institute has operated with generous
funds provided by Gordon Ringold and Tanya Zarucki’s gift
to establish the Institute, an anonymous gift that helped galvanize
the workshops, additional private donations,
and funds from the Executive Vice Chancellor and Campus Provost, the Vice Chancellor
for Research, the Division of Physical and Biological Sciences, the Division
of Social Sciences, and the Baskin School of Engineering. These funds allowed
the vision for the Institute to become the reality of functioning interdisciplinary
research groups. The Institute will continue to rely in the future on the generosity
of private foundations and individual donors.
Through
new funding that the Institute has gained in recent months, it
will be possible over the coming year to further the development
of research groups
already established and facilitate the establishment of new groups. Many
faculty members throughout UCSC have approached the Institute over the past
year to discuss formation of new interdisciplinary research groups, and the
new funds will be awarded on a competitive basis. In addition, the new funds
will allow the Institute to assist in the ongoing development of core facilities
for environmental research at UCSC. The new funds include an anonymous gift
that will allow establishment of interdisciplinary
fellowships and internships on STEPS-facilitated research projects, and funds
provided by the Executive Vice Chancellor from the University of California
Office of the President.
As part of the process of assuring that the STEPS Institute is truly a campus-wide
effort, we established this year an Internal Advisory Board of faculty and
administrators to oversee current efforts and review future plans. The coming
year should see the continuation of the research efforts begun during this
first year, the establishment of new research groups, an increased effort
to communicate the results of UCSC environmental research outside the university,
and an expanding effort to link UCSC environmental researchers with colleagues,
decision makers, and managers throughout the region, state, and country.
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