University of Notre Dame
IN-47: Innovation A

The Center for Civic Innovation (CCI) was established in August of 2018 through a collaboration with the University of Notre Dame's College of Engineering, Office of Research, IDEA Center, and Office of Public Affairs. CCI grew out of a single project started in 2015 that was initially called the Bowman Creek Educational Ecosystem (BCe2). Housed in the College of Engineering, BCe2 immersed University of Notre Dame engineering students in hands-on community-engaged work with community partners to improve Bowman Creek in the Southeast Neighborhood of South Bend. Today, its work has grown to include over 50 interns from 15 colleges and high schools working in interdisciplinary teams on 15 projects across the South Bend-Elkhart region as part of CCI's Internship Program. These projects align with civic innovation research efforts of importance to Notre Dame faculty and community partners. The inaugural CCI Director is Dr. Jay Brockman, a faculty member in Notre Dame's Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

The Center for Civic Innovation works with other research centers and individuals across Notre Dame to identify unique opportunities for collaboration that address pressing issues primarily in the South Bend/Elkhart region. The Center's work is of service to the community while generating new opportunities for scholarship on campus. The Center brings together academic researchers, city government officials, and other community stakeholders to identify needs and to assess and map University intellectual assets to addressing these needs. A key objective of the Center is to create a virtuous cycle wherein faculty and students analyze challenging problems facing the community and develop innovative solutions at the boundaries of existing disciplines that fosters advances in both innovation and research.

With climate change, cities are experiencing increased exposure to environmental stressors, such as heat, cold, and flooding. Consequently, the need for understanding how best to design, plan, and develop resilient and sustainable communities has never been greater. Challenges and opportunities abound in legacy industrial cities. For example, cities may now use technology to increase the efficiency of aging infrastructure, thereby increasing regional surface water quality through managed flows to municipal treatment plants. These advances, coupled with the possibility of creative green infrastructure applications in underutilized urban lands, provide opportunities to further our understanding how to re-inhabit neighborhoods of legacy industrial cities more sustainably.

The Center for Civic Innovation supports research that contributes to our understanding of planning and developing sustainable, resilient urban areas – with particular interest in the possibilities presented by integrating new technologies and decades of research on natural systems and ecosystem services from rural areas to inform sustainable urban systems research.