Models and Trades: Strategies to Improve Community Engaged Research in the Environmental Sciences

Efforts to meet the needs of a growing global population while ensuring ample resources for future generations are at the heart of sustainable development. The defining challenges of the 21st-century involve a complex set of interconnected social, economic, and environmental factors. Innovation in education and research will be essential in helping society address these challenges. To do so requires individuals working collaboratively across science, technology, and engineering as well as with the social science disciplines. Such teams of researchers need to engage with members of the public and be guided by specific, realworld problems. I argue that communityengaged research (hereafter CER; see below) is a means by which these collaborative, trans-disciplinary efforts can be effectively harnessed to meet the challenges of sustainability; especially in cities.