Current’s Great Lakes ReNEW just won a highly competitive NSF Engine Award, for up to $160 million over 10 years for developing a water economy powerhouse! This is truly thrilling, and honestly a dream come true - though just another step forward toward a Big Vision. A few things:
1) Water is a big deal. This award shows how fundamental water is to society, to climate, to the economy: 5 of the 10 NSF Engines Awardees have water as a topic (though Current’s is the only one specialized on water).
2) Current beat out a ton of really strong, well-funded proposals. It won by choosing an incredibly relevant topic (water), by developing an outstanding proposal with bottoms-up plans, having a broad and committed consortium, and having incredible leadership powered by Alaina Harkness and Junhong Chen. Hard work by awesome people on the right topic wins!
3) This is one more step forward of what is a big journey started with a vision. My thoughts go back to the founding of Current and the vision of an incredible group of people whose foundational contributions now are less visible: Rahm Emanuel, Steven Koch, World Business Chicago, Jeff Malehorn, Seth Snyder, Thru Shivakumar, Lindsay Broughel, David St Pierre, and several others. And also to Venkat Atluri, the board of Current, and the outstanding team that made this happen. THANK YOU!
Water is a big deal. The global spend on water is now > $1T/yr. Per the World Wildlife Fund, the economic value of water and freshwater ecosystems is $58 trillion/yr, or 60% of global GDP! Crazy important.
Water is life. Water is climate. Water is the fundamental molecule.
Current is proud and thrilled: The regional collaborative we lead, Great Lakes ReNEW, has just won up to $160 million in funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Learn about our plans to turn waste into wealth in this video. cc: Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago
