Our project consists of a discussion forum with two participants, a moderator and an audience, which brings together unusual pairings and explores unusual approaches and solutions to climate change. Through short texts published and a highlight video recording of the conversation and its distribution on social media, the aim is to reach a broad audience.

In the fight against climate change, one of mankind's most important weapons is research. We need to pull out all the stops here and not retreat exclusively into our own field of expertise. Our project is one that tries to start here and make our most effective weapon against climate change even more effective, innovative and interconnected.

Bringing together many academic disciplines, qualitative and quantitative research, and non-academia contributors to find more effective mitigation and adaptation solutions to the impacts of climate change. The special feature is that the discussants are not experts in one specific field, as is usually the case, but that they are experts in very different fields. There are countless possible pairings, from a fashion designer and a researcher on extreme weather, to an astronaut and a data analyst, an insurance broker and a general, or a diplomat and a nature photographer. All can combine their expertise with climate change issues and together find innovative and creative solutions in the field of climate mitigation and adaptation. This process is stimulated and enhanced by the active involvement of the audience and the guidance of the moderator. The pairings shown as examples could, for example, give rise to ideas for fashion adapted to extreme heat or databases on insurance claims after hurricanes can make future operations of the national guard more efficient. The possibilities for unusual cross-overs are endless.

Short & Long-term Goals/Results

The short term impact of our project is the team building that it brings with it and the individual skills of the team members. It is also a good opportunity to communicate with a potentially large audience and explicitly promote the Global Shaper Community and its goals and principles. New Haven, and Yale University in particular, offers good ground for growing the local hub with brilliant young minds.

In the medium term, we hope to have expanded our outreach outside the Yale academic bubble, reaching out to the entire New Haven community to educate and raise awareness on climate change issues and solutions. The academic community in our hub who are following our project should see a small perspective shift in the medium term towards a more interdisciplinary approach to problems and solutions. We also hope that some of the creative solutions discussed in the context of our project will be taken up and developed further into own projects.

In the long term, we hope to establish the project in New Haven and to have a broad network of other hubs and institutions as partners. The long-term goal is that the stimulation of truly interdisciplinary exchange across bubbles and silos will continue outside our project and take root both in academia and far beyond. In the long term, if the project is successful, it should be anchored in the hub and in New Haven in such a way that it can be continued with new teams and with other funding opportunities.

For more information: https://www.globalshapers.org/hubs/new-haven-hub