Become a Community Science Partner with the Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring
The Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring was established in 2024 to provide American communities with technical and stipend support for the co-development of a community-based heat data collection campaign.
Applications for 2025 Community Science Partners opened on November 1, 2024 and closed on at 11:59 PM EST (UTC -5:00) on Friday, January 17, 2025.
Due to termination of federal funding for the Centers of Excellence on May 5, 2025, the Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring is not currently accepting applications for Community Science Partners for 2026.
Learn more about our 2025 Community Science Partners by following this link.
Learn more about the Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring
FAQs
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The Center recognizes that community may be defined in many ways. The CCHM recognizes the ASTC definition of community as “any connected or organized group of people who share a common geography, jurisdiction, set of characteristics, interests, or goals—not just a particular racial or ethnic group or ZIP code.”
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We do not expect communities to have data or scientific expertise on heat in order to apply. We value indigenous knowledge, as well as a community members’ lived experience, as equally valid ways of knowing about heat and its effects. We are particularly interested in working with communities who show us that they are interested in developing new knowledge that can be used to promote heat resilience.
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Through our partner, CAPA Strategies, the CCHM can support communities who want to collect data on ambient temperature, particulate matter (PM2.5), or wet bulb globe temperature (WGBT). The CCHM does not have the capacity, technology, or expertise to collect other kinds of data related to heat at this time, such as health data (e.g. emergency room admissions) or data such as water temperature.
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In addition to financial and technical support for a heat monitoring campaign and community science, the CCHM can help facilitate connections to other federal agencies in the NIHHIS network.
Community Science Partners will also be invited to join a robust community of practice that began with participants in the Urban Heat Islands program. Communities will have opportunities to connect with other communities funded by the same hub, as well as other communities funded in the same cohort. -
Heat data collected through CCHM campaigns is funded by taxpayer dollars, and is generally expected to be shared with the public. The CCHM is committed to balancing a commitment to open science with respect for the sovereignty of Tribal communities around the gathering of data that involves indigenous knowledge. If you have concerns about privacy and/or data sovereignty that would affect your ability to participate in the CCHM, please contact us before submitting your application.
Paperwork Reduction Act and Privacy Act Notices
The collection of Heat Mapping information is authorized under the OMB Control Number included in the Citizen Science & Crowdsourcing Information Collection page.
PRA Burden Statement:
A Federal agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, nor shall a person be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with an information collection subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 unless the information collection has a currently valid OMB Control Number. The approved OMB Control Number for the Citizen Science & Crowdsourcing information collection is 0648-0828. Without this approval, we could not conduct these information collections. NOAA recognizes that the PRA does apply to its Citizen Science & Crowdsourcing information collections and OMB approval is pending. In the interim, OMB is permitting NOAA to conduct those collections. Public reporting for these information collections is estimated to be between one minute and 8 hours per response depending on the
project, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the information collection. All responses to this information collection are voluntary. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this information collection, including suggestions for reducing this burden to the NOAA Citizen Science Office at citizenscience@noaa.gov.
Privacy Act Statement:
Authority: The collection of this information is authorized under 5 U.S.C. § 301, Departmental regulations which authorizes the operations of an executive agency, including the creation, custodianship, maintenance and distribution of records, and 15 U.S.C. 1512, Powers and duties of the Department.
Purpose: NOAA is collecting this information to help meet its mission to understand and predict changes in climate, weather, ocean, and coasts, to share that knowledge and information with others, and to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources. NOAA collects limited information, such as name, address, phone number, or email address for a variety of purposes. This information will be used to respond to user inquiries or provide services requested by the user.
Routine Uses: Disclosure of this information is permitted under the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. Section 552a) to be shared among Department staff for work-related purposes. Disclosure of this information is also subject to all of the published routine uses as identified in the Privacy Act System of Records Notice COMMERCE/NOAA-11, Contact Information for Members of the Public Requesting or Providing Information Related to NOAA’s Mission, and COMMERCE/DEPT-23, Information Collected Electronically in Connection with Department of Commerce Activities, Events, and Programs.
Disclosure: Furnishing this information is voluntary. By providing this information, you are consenting to the use of that information only for the purpose for which it is submitted.