NOAA, American Indian Higher Education Consortium work to build climate resilience

The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) signed a formal memorandum of understanding (MOU) to advance Indigenous Knowledge, science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, and workforce training opportunities for tribal communities with the goal of building climate resilience.

“NOAA is excited to team up with the American Indian Higher Education Consortium to accelerate information-sharing aimed at building climate resilience, adaptation and co-production of knowledge in communities across the United States and tribal nations,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. “Indigenous Knowledge has made it possible for Indigenous Nations to persist and thrive for millennia. These knowledge systems are needed more than ever to inform NOAA and our nation’s approach to environmental stewardship.”

“The American Indian Higher Education Consortium is honored to partner with NOAA to collaborate on shared goals and issues,” said Ahniwake Rose, AIHEC President & Chief Executive Officer. “This collaboration will create opportunities for our faculty and students, combine Indigenous Knowledge with western science to achieve strong climate resilience for our tribal nations and across the country and empower our tribal colleges and universities to be leaders in the ongoing response to climate change.”

Recognizing the common goals of making the U.S. and tribal nations more resilient to the risks of a rapidly-changing climate, the new MOU is designed to identify opportunities for collaboration, including:

• Identifying western science and Indigenous Knowledge priorities for the AIHEC, an organization that provides leadership and influences policy for 35 accredited U.S. tribal colleges and universities.

   

• Building a network of faculty and students from tribal colleges, universities and NOAA climate leaders and scientists that will facilitate information exchanges, identify projects of interest and enhance student learning opportunities.

   

• Creating opportunities for NOAA to learn from faculty and students from tribal colleges and universities through coordinated partnerships that promote co-learning and co-development of knowledge, include community-driven research to advance NOAA’s mission to build a Climate-Ready Nation, as well as shared AIHEC-NOAA objectives.

   

• NOAA sharing with AIHEC any publicly available opportunities for faculty, students, interns and fellows, funding solicitations and board and committee opportunities with the goal of enhancing the capacity of indigenous and tribal communities to respond to climate change. In turn, AIHEC will share these educational and leadership opportunities through communication channels within tribal colleges and universities.

   

• The AIHEC identifying for NOAA the training and educational needs of faculty and students at tribal colleges and universities to advance climate literacy and capacity for climate resilience.

   

• NOAA and the AIHEC working together to develop strategies to improve how NOAA’s student learning opportunities, climate services, funding solicitations and community engagement can best be tailored and sensitive to the needs of tribal nations and communities.

The MOU also calls for NOAA and AIHEC to meet at least annually to discuss priorities, review progress and discuss ways to improve the implementation of the MOU. NOAA and the AIHEC will jointly prepare a plan of activities to improve communication and coordination each year or as needed. NOAA and the AIHEC may, where appropriate, share and jointly develop educational and outreach materials, best practices or tools including websites, video archives or data management systems. The MOU encourages meetings of NOAA and AIHEC to take place at tribal colleges and universities.