The Lifelines CommunitySocial impact Scientists

SUPER POWERS

Interest in working across sectors

Innovation-minded, pushing forward cutting-edge research

Dedication to expanding the impact of data and technology

Ability to analyze and synthesize diverse sets of needs and address them with technical solutions

Motivation

Social Impact Scientists are driven to push the boundaries of current approaches to Earth science in order to use data more effectively and efficiently.

Goals

Developing technical approaches, tools and datasets for greater impact,

Conducting analyses and creating models that can support disaster response by surveying damage, guiding decision-making and resource allocation, ensuring data quality, and more,

Identifying new ways of conducting analyses on changes over time, creating predictive models, and providing insights that can be used by decision makers.

Working together with humanitarian organizations to understand real life scenarios and specific humanitarian needs.

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Social Impact Scientists are driven to have a positive social impact in their work, focusing on developing new applications of technology that will benefit humanity. They are experts in their craft but may not always have deep knowledge of the social issues they hope to positively influence. They are part of academic and professional networks where they seek to explore, discover, collaborate, and innovate. They may be academics, PhD students, remote sensing technicians, programmers, mission scientists, engineers and more.

” I know Earth observation has the power to revolutionize how we address global challenges. Yet, navigating limited funding and siloed disciplines often makes it difficult to turn innovative ideas into actionable solutions. With stronger collaborations and support, we could harness satellite data to predict crises, guide interventions, and create lasting impact where it’s needed most.”

They use earth observation to…

To develop tools and models that push the boundaries of current disaster response methods; analyze changes over time to predict and mitigate future crises; and provide innovative and actionable insights to support humanitarian organizations.

Challenges

Limited funding to support sustained partnerships across disciplines

Particularly in academic contexts, Social Impact Scientists have a hard time securing funding that will match their desire to collaborate across disciplines, or for flexible innovation support, especially important if they hope to have an impact at scale.

External pressures

Limited local connection points

The work of Social Impact Scientists is often very far removed, geographically, from humanitarian crises – making their network of relationships relatively thin. As such, they seek out touchpoints to inform their work and ensure that their EO applications respond to contextual needs. However, humanitarians themselves face competing pressures and limited funding, and they must often prioritize immediate response needs over long-term research or innovation work. This reduces the reliability of engagement between the two groups.

Pace mismatch

Due to the contexts described above, the pace of work of a Social Impact Scientists and that of a Tech Savvy Humanitarian are often at opposite ends of the spectrum. For these Scientists to have the impact they hope to have, this requires that they adjust their workflows and find creative solutions to match the rapid-changing contexts humanitarians work within. Successful collaboration will require that these Scientists identify where they can work towards interventions that are sustained.

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