Diverse Knowledge Systems (DKS) for Climate Adaptation Fellowship

The Diverse Knowledge Systems for Climate Adaptation Fellowship supports graduate students for one year as they use their diverse experiences, viewpoints, value systems, and cultural knowledge to strengthen their climate adaptation efforts.
 

There are many ways of exploring and understanding the natural world. Tribal Nations and Indigenous peoples have cultural identities developed through millennia of connection with their homelands. Farmers and ranchers have deep understandings of the plants, animals, soils, and weather patterns at the foundation of their livelihoods. Intercity communities live and work among urban ecosystems and have unique experiences with the intersections between nature and society, power and class. Yet, traditional Western science often does not value these knowledge systems or provide ways of integrating knowledge held outside the peer-reviewed literature. In creating these silos, the scientific community is unable to fully understand the diverse peoples and ecosystems that make up our nation. 

The Diverse Knowledge Systems for Climate Adaptation (DKS) Fellowship provides graduate students an opportunity to explore the unique perspectives they bring to science. Over the course of the one-year fellowship, students will collaborate with USGS researchers to develop a project applying their unique knowledge system to applied climate adaptation research. Mentors from the USGS Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASCs) will work with fellows to identify how their science can help on-the-ground practitioners understand, plan for, and adapt to climate change impacts. They will also teach them how to work with stakeholders and rightsholders to ensure their work is useful for those who need it, exemplifying the partnership-based model of the CASC network.

Learn more about eligibility, how to apply, meet our fellows, and more: https://www.usgs.gov/programs/climate-adaptation-science-centers/divers…