News | June 26, 2024
A Biochar Solution for Urban Runoff
Written by Julia Davis for the University of Washington In cities around the globe, stormwater runoff remains largely untreated, collecting everything from heavy metals to pesticides before flowing into our waterways. This environmental challenge requires innovative solutions, and biochar may just be the key. CEE Assistant Professor Jessica Ray and graduate student Amy Quintanilla are…
News | March 19, 2024
A New ‘Holy Grail’ in the Housing Crisis: Statewide Rent Caps
Reported in The New York Times by David W. Chen As housing costs soar, Washington State wants to limit annual rent increases to 7 percent. Oregon and California have passed similar measures. With her husband struggling at times to find work, Ms. Horn has maxed out her credit cards to keep pace with the…
News | July 22, 2024
A week of nonstop breaking political news stumps AI chatbots
Reported by Heather Kelly For The Washington Post In the hour after President Biden announced he would withdraw from the 2024 campaign on Sunday, most popular AI chatbots seemed oblivious to the news. Asked directly whether he had dropped out, almost all said no or declined to give an answer. Asked who was running for…
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About the RAC
The Research to Action Collaboratory serves as a catalyst for research teams, building their transformational collaborative capacity to address today’s most pressing urban challenges. Today’s most pressing problems—from climate change to community cohesion to regional sustainability—are defined by interdependence, and impacts across communities and scales. These complex issues cannot be solved by one field or…
News | August 9, 2024
Are we on the brink of a tax revolt in Washington state?
Reported by Joshua McNichols for KUOW/NPR News Cities all over the region have big property tax levies on the ballot this year. There’s a transportation levy in Seattle, a levy to modernize the fire department in Tacoma, and a levy to pay for public safety and libraries in Everett. Increasingly, elected officials rely on these…
News | January 23, 2024
Building community resilience: A $2 million NSF grant will transform disaster response
Amy Sprague January 16, 2024 “Our advantage of being an interdisciplinary project at the University of Washington is that we are drawing from an excellent corps of researchers with complementary expertise at a University whose mission includes working for the greater good across the state of Washington and has excellent ties into our communities.” Professor…
News | May 13, 2024
Cloud Brightening Study in California Is Halted by Local Officials
Researchers had been testing a sprayer that could one day be used to push a salty mist skyward, cooling the Earth. Officials stopped the work, citing health questions. Written by Christopher Flavelle for The New York Times. Officials in Alameda, Calif., have told scientists to stop testing a device that might one day be used…
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Collaboration Resources
The RAC aims to build teams’ collaborative capacities. The below resources represent a selection of tools and models we’ve found to be useful.
News | November 26, 2024
Creating multi-sector teams to build cities where everyone thrives.
Research-to-Action Teams 2024-25 In April of 2024 two teams were selected for participation in the second cohort of the Research to Action Collaboratory. For 18 months Urban@UW will work with these teams to provide seed funds, dedicated time to building team cohesion and collaboration skills, and opportunities for peer support, shared resources, and learning. These…
News | November 8, 2024
Crows hold grudges against individual humans for up to 17 years
Reported by Eric Falls for Earth.com Crows are more than just black-feathered figures cawing from treetops; they are masters of memory and grudges, with cognitive abilities that defy our expectations. While we often admire birds for their bright plumage and lilting songs, there is a deeper layer to their behavior that remains unseen. Birds are…
News | February 11, 2025
Exciting Updates from RAC Cohort 2
Last month the second cohort of the Research to Action Collaboratory gathered to share their progress. The Research to Action Collaboratory, or RAC, is an incubation program that provides dedicated team time, skill sharing, and seed funding. RAC teams include academics from different fields as well as community leaders who come together to tackle complex…
News | May 20, 2024
Global life expectancy is projected to increase by 5 years by 2050
Reported by Rodielon Putol for Earth A recent study from the prestigious Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2021 reveals an encouraging trend: global life expectancy is expected to rise by nearly five years by 2050, despite various global challenges. According to the findings published in The Lancet, life expectancy for males is projected to…
News | June 17, 2024
Here’s what homeowners can do to prevent one of the leading causes of death for birds
Originally reported by for King 5 by Erica Zucco. SEATTLE — U.S. Fish and Wildlife and other agencies say one of the leading causes of death in birds is colliding with buildings. Birds fly at a high rate of speed and don’t recognize glass as a barrier, often ending in mortality. University of Washington researcher…
News | June 11, 2024
Here’s why an Arizona medical examiner is working to track heat-related deaths
Written by Alejandra Borunda for NPR News Greg Hess deals with death day in, day out. Hess is the medical examiner for Pima County, Ariz., a region along the United States-Mexico border. His office handles some 3,000 deaths each year — quiet deaths, overdoses, gruesome deaths, tragic ones. From April through October every year, Hess…
News | April 4, 2024
How do wildfires affect mental health? A new UW study examines the connection
Originally reported in the Seattle Times by Taylor Blatchford Checking air quality and staying indoors when smoke inundates the Seattle area has become second nature during Washington’s wildfire season in recent years. But new research highlights how wildfires can affect a less visible aspect of well-being: mental health. A University of Washington study published in…
News | October 18, 2024
How to avoid sharing election misinformation
Reported by Audrey Nguyen for NPR The 2024 election season is upon us. While Election Day is November 5, early voting started in September in some states. As we wait for the final results to be declared, chances are, you’re going to come across false or misleading information. To avoid spreading misinformation this election season,…
News | May 2, 2024
Immunocompromised and at-risk Americans feel left behind as COVID restrictions disappear
Written by Clayton Sandell for Scripps News Four years after the COVID pandemic swept across the U.S., mask mandates are no more. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention no longer recommends a five-day isolation after a positive test, and travel restrictions have been lifted. But for millions of Americans like Jessica Spangler’s 9-year-old daughter,…
News | August 30, 2024
Living in tree-filled neighborhoods may reduce risk of heart disease, study shows
Written by Kaitlin Sullivan and Anne Thompson for NBC News Living in a tree-filled neighborhood may be as beneficial to the heart as regular exercise, new research shows. Researchers at the University of Louisville designed a clinical trial that followed hundreds of people living in six low- to middle-income neighborhoods in South Louisville, Kentucky. They…
News | October 1, 2024
Loneliness in Washington tops national average
Reported by Christine Clarridge and Alex Fitzpatrick for Axios. More than 43% of Washingtonians reported feeling lonely at least sometimes, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Why it matters: Loneliness isn’t just a feeling; it’s associated with serious mental and physical health impacts, including elevated likelihood of developing diabetes, cardiac risk,…
News | July 19, 2024
More Than 1 Trillion Microbes Live Inside the Average Tree Trunk
Reported by Erik Stokstad for Science The wood inside the average tree might seem barren, but it’s home to an incredibly diverse array of life. More than 1 trillion fungi, bacteria, and other microbes live inside the average trunk, according to the most comprehensive survey yet conducted, comprising unique communities specialized to various tree species….
News | August 20, 2024
Need anti-withdrawal meds? In King County, call this 24/7 hotline
Reported by Eilis O’Neil for KUOW and NPR News People addicted to opioids in King County can call a new hotline and get a prescription right away for a drug that can help. Buprenorphine reduces symptoms of withdrawal and can help people stay off fentanyl and other opioids. Buprenorphine “does cut overdose risk by 50%,…
News | March 15, 2024
Neighborhood Poverty May Impact Women’s Ovarian Reserves
Reported by Lori Solomon at Health Day News FRIDAY, March 15, 2024 — Living in a neighborhood with greater poverty in adulthood is tied to lower ovarian reserve, according to a study published online March 5 in Menopause. Anwesha Pan, from the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues aimed to examine the association between…
News | May 2, 2024
New York cities plagued by blackouts due to climate change, study finds
Written by Saul Elbein for The Hill. Climate change is pushing some New York City neighborhoods into dozens of nearly daylong blackouts per year, a new study has found. Large swaths of the state’s principal towns and cities faced repeated, protracted and dangerous weather-driven power outages between 2017 and 2020, according to findings published Wednesday in…
News | March 29, 2024
Office-to-residential conversion is a trendy idea for downtown resurgence — but has big challenges
Originally published in Geekwire Written by Chuck Wolfe, longtime affiliate associate professor in College of Built Environments at the University of Washington. Office-to-residential conversions are frequent fodder in discussions of the post-pandemic city, downtown regeneration, and hopes to contain rising housing costs. Remote work is here to stay, especially in hybrid form in the tech-centric…
News | August 20, 2024
Permeable pavement could help cities be more resilient to flooding
Reported by Stéphane Blais for La Presse Canadienne and the Toronto Sun. Pilot projects are being developed across Quebec to make parking lots, bike paths or portions of streets more resilient to climate change. To make cities more resilient to flooding caused by climate change, researchers are developing more permeable pavements to allow water to…
News | October 11, 2024
Pollinator Village Built by Future Designers
Reported by the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington. Photo by Alex Blair. This past summer, the College of Built Environments (CBE) partnered with Sawhorse Revolution, a Seattle-based nonprofit dedicated to fostering confident, community-driven youth through the power of carpentry and craft, to host a transformative three-week intensive program on campus. Fifteen…
News | November 27, 2023
RAC projects learning together, building momentum
Co-creation sessions with Duwamish Valley community members and stakeholders that focused on identifying priorities, values, and aspirations for community open space in their neighborhoods. (Credit: Maron Bernardino) After their launch in spring of this year, the two inaugural projects of the Research to Action Collaboratory have been making progress in key ways. Supported by Urban@UW,…
News | September 16, 2024
Register Today for Urban@UW’s presentation at Climate Week NYC
Urban@UW is heading to the big apple for Climate Week NYC, the largest international conference of business leaders, political change makers, scientists, and civil society representatives working for climate action. Rachel Berney, Faculty Director, and Kate Landis, Program Manager, will present “Call Me, Maybe? University-Community Partnerships for a Greener Tomorrow” on Monday, 9/23, from 5-7PM….
News | June 17, 2024
Rekindling Our Relationship with Wildfire
Written for the Climate One podcast, hosted by Greg Dalton and Ariana Brocious. Summer is just around the corner, and in addition to travel and vacation, that also means peak wildfire season. Recently we’ve seen some of the most destructive wildfires in recorded history. The images on the news of orange skies and opaque haze…
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Request for Applications
The Research to Action Collaboratory serves as a catalyst for research teams, building their transformational collaborative capacity to address today’s most pressing urban challenges. The Request for Applictations (RFA) seeks teams of community members, researchers, and students across the University of Washington to co-produce actionable, community-centered research and knowledge for persistent urban-focused problems. The application…
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Research to Action Collaboratory (RAC)
The Research to Action Collaboratory serves as a catalyst for research teams, building their transformational collaborative capacity to address today’s most pressing urban challenges. Learn more about the second cohort of RAC awardees! Program Overview The recently launched Research to Action Collaboratory (RAC) develops collaborative research teams, building their transformational capacity to address sustainability and…
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Research-to-Action Teams 2023-2024
In April of 2023 the teams selected for the inaugural cohort of the Research to Action Collaboratory (RAC) were announced. These groups combine the research capabilities of University of Washington scholars with frontline leaders embedded in their communities and government officials who can codify change. The Research-to-Action Collaboratory provides the teams with seed funding, training…
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Research-to-Action Teams 2024-25
In April of 2024 two teams were selected for participation in the second cohort of the Research to Action Collaboratory. For 18 months Urban@UW will work with these teams to provide seed funds, dedicated time to building team cohesion and collaboration skills, and opportunities for peer support, shared resources, and learning. These two project teams…
News | July 10, 2024
Seattle Nurses Take Heart Care to the Streets
Written by Christine Clarridge for Axios. Two Harborview nurses are leaving the hospital to make “house calls” at tents, bus stops and cars to bring life-saving heart care to people where they are. Why it matters: The Community Heart Failure Program not only stabilizes patients’ cardiac health but also reduces hospital admissions, lengths of stay…
News | April 26, 2024
Seattle’s troubled past and present suggest a new approach to mental health
Written by Will James, Sydney Brownstone, and Esme Jimenez as part of the series “Lost Patients” for KUOW, an NPR Station. Edward Moore, a 32-year-old sailor, was discovered, near freezing and living in a tattered tent on the shore near current day Seattle in 1854. At the time, Washington was still a territory and Seattle…
News | July 16, 2024
SPARK Grant Recipients Win Big with a Social Justice Jacket
Reported by Kate Landis for Urban@UW What if a denim jacket could tell the stories of people impacted by housing inequality across the country? Resistive Threads, a project that was awarded a Urban@UW SPARK grant in 2023, was recently awarded a Honorable Mention at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) conference,…
News | August 30, 2024
The pros and cons of spraying pesticides to keep disease-carrying mosquito populations down
Written by Julia Jacobo for ABC News Researchers are trying to find ways to quell growing mosquito populations that spread disease without putting recovering populations of important pollinators like bees and butterflies at risk. Pesticides are an important management tool for mosquito control as well as for other pests that impact agriculture, Laura Melissa Guzman, assistant…
News | July 15, 2024
The Quinault Nation and the Rising Pacific
Written by Hallie Golden for the Associated Press TAHOLAH, Wash. (AP) — Standing water lies beneath the home Sonny Curley shares with his parents and three children on the Quinault reservation a few steps from the Pacific Ocean in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. The back deck is rotting, and black mold speckles the walls inside, leaving…
News | October 29, 2024
This Atlanta neighborhood hired a case manager to address rising homelessness − and it’s improving health and safety for everyone
Reported by Ishita Chordia, Ph.D. Candidate in Information Science, University of Washington Homelessness has surged across the United States in recent years, rising 19% from 2016 though 2023. The main cause is a severe shortage of affordable housing. Rising homelessness has renewed debates about use of public space and how encampments affect public safety. The…
News | March 19, 2024
To report or not report ‘suspicious people’ near campus
Originally reported in The Daily by Shira Sur It took three encounters with a person threatening bypassers near the West Campus dorms for first-year student Hannah Whitemarsh to call 911. Whitemarsh’s call to UWPD, which was made in mid-October of 2023, was transferred to the Seattle Police Department (SPD). After she was asked whether the…
News | December 7, 2023
Urban@UW announces 2nd Request for Applications for RAC
Urban@UW is excited to announce the second round of Request for Applications (RFA) for the Research to Action Collaboratory (RAC). The RFA invites teams of community members, researchers and students across the University of Washington who are excited to co-produce actionable, community-centered research and knowledge for persistent urban-focused problems. The deadline for submitting an application…
News | April 17, 2023
Urban@UW Announces the 2023 Research to Action Collaboratory Inaugural Cohort
Urban@UW is excited to announce the project teams selected for the inaugural cohort of the Research to Action Collaboratory (RAC). Throughout the next 18 months, Urban@UW will work with these teams and provide seed funds, dedicated time to build team cohesion and collaboration skills, and foster opportunities for peer support and shared resources and learning….
News | November 26, 2024
Urban@UW is working toward a future where cities are hubs of innovation, inclusivity, & sustainability.
Research-to-Action Teams 2023-2024 In April of 2023 the teams selected for the inaugural cohort of the Research to Action Collaboratory (RAC) were announced. These groups combine the research capabilities of University of Washington scholars with frontline leaders embedded in their communities and government officials who can codify change. The Research-to-Action Collaboratory provides the teams with…
News | January 11, 2023
Urban@UW launches the Research to Action Collaboratory
Urban@UW launches the Research to Action Collaboratory, with initial funding from the Bullitt Foundation, to help collaborations achieve greater impact The new accelerator program for research teams aims to build collective capacity to increase sustainability and resilience across urban areas and the Pacific Northwest. The Research to Action Collaboratory (RAC), seeded by a catalytic $500,000…
News | September 5, 2024
Urban@UW Presenting at New York Climate Week
Urban@UW Director Rachel Berney and Program Manager Kate Landis will present on the Research-to Action Collaboratory later this month at New York Climate Week, as part of the New York Climate Exchange. “We are thrilled to be one of the very few university centers invited to participate in New York Climate Week. This well- publicized…
News | October 2, 2024
Urban@UW Presents at Climate Week NYC
Last week Urban@UW’s Director Rachel Berney and Program Manager Kate Landis presented on the Research to Action Collaboratory at Climate Week NYC, as a guest of the New York Climate Exchange. Leaders from all sectors met on Governors Island, just south of Manhattan, to discuss climate adaptations, potential partnerships, and new technology in carbon reduction….
News | November 26, 2024
Urban@UW unites research, community insight, and policy to drive innovation for resilient and equitable cities.
Inclusive Data-Driven Innovation for the Future of Cities Urban@UW extends the understanding of cities—from people, buildings, infrastructure, and energy to economics, policy, culture, art, and nature—beyond individual topics to dynamically interdependent systems, so that we can holistically design and steward vibrant and welcoming cities in which future generations will thrive. In partnership with the College…
News | November 1, 2024
Urban@UW’s Research to Action Teams Gather for a Fall Workshop
What do Microforests, the historic University of Tacoma campus, refugee resettlement, greenwater recycling, everything bagels and tasty Thai food have in common? They all played a part in October’s Research to Action teams retreat, led by Urban@UW. Urban@UW brings together multidisciplinary academics and embedded community leaders to solve complex urban challenges through the Research to…
News | November 26, 2024
Urban@UW’s Research to Action Collaboratory provides funding, facilitation, & tools to empower cross-disciplinary teams to solve urban problems
About the RAC The Research to Action Collaboratory serves as a catalyst for research teams, building their transformational collaborative capacity to address today’s most pressing urban challenges. The RAC combines financial support, thought partnership, and skill-building to increase the capacity of scholars, community stakeholders, and the UW for impactful, collaborative research. Today’s most pressing problems—from…
News | October 7, 2024
WA Gen Z voters excited, but turnout still a toss-up
Reported by Paris Jackson for Cascade/PBS There’s a surge in interest among young voters, those considered Generation Z, this election cycle. They’re outspoken, savvy and civically engaged. Gen Z’ers are those born between 1997 and 2012, according to Pew Research. They’re touted as the generation that grew up with the internet as an integral part…
News | June 25, 2024
Why social media rarely leads to constructive political action
Written by Stefan Milne for UW News. While social media platforms are rife with problems — from harassment to misinformation — many argue that the platforms also nurture political movements, such as the Arab Spring and #MeToo. But in her new book “Log Off: Why Posting and Politics (Almost) Never Mix,” Katherine Cross, a University…
News | June 21, 2024
Why the First Heat Wave of the Summer Can Be the Most Dangerous
Written by Scott Dance for the Washington Post. In an average June, just a few days reach 90 degrees in Detroit. But by the time the year’s first blast of summer breaks in the Motor City this weekend, nearly a week of intense heat will have passed. And some of the most dangerous heat waves…
News | August 2, 2024
Wildfire Smoke Exposure Linked With Higher Dementia Risk
Reported by Dennis Thompson for HealthDay THURSDAY, Aug. 1, 2024 (HealthDay News) — The wildfires thats are increasing with climate change could harm the future brain health of humanity, a new study suggests. Wildfire smoke appears to increase people’s risk of a dementia diagnosis even more than other types of air pollution, researchers reported this…