Collaborative research: ecocare: a use-inspired ecological-economic collaboratory for advancing coastal wetland restoration and resilience

The National Science Foundation Office of Integrative Activities awarded Louisiana State University $1,476,876 on September 1, 2026, under the Integrative Activities program (CFDA 47.083) to lead the ECOCARE collaborative research project addressing coastal wetland restoration and resilience across Rhode Island and Louisiana through September 31, 2030.

The award funds development of innovative methods in AI-enhanced modeling, wetland valuation, molecular biomonitoring, and restoration financing through a transdisciplinary team of scientists, practitioners, policy experts, and stakeholders. Research outcomes will be synthesized for translational decision support via the ECOCARE web portal. The project addresses three core questions: how wetland resilience can be consistently characterized across hydrological and geomorphic settings; how scientific insights can be synthesized into transferable monitoring, modeling, and restoration approaches; and how generalizable frameworks can assess wetland condition, predict trajectory, and value ecosystem services across varied U.S. coastal systems. The project will establish a transdisciplinary workforce through training and mentoring of students, postdocs, and early-career faculty members.

Co-leads include the University of Rhode Island and Louisiana State University. Partnering institutions include Roger Williams University, LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, and the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. Place of performance is Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The award is classified as a Project Grant assistance type.

Abstract

The use-inspired ecological-economic collaboratory for advancing coastal wetland restoration and resilience (ECOCARE) project is an inter-jurisdictional project that addresses urgent needs for capacity building for research on coastal wetland restoration. A transdisciplinary team of scientists, practitioners, policy experts, and stakeholders from rhode island (RI) and louisiana (LA) will develop innovative methods in AI-enhanced modeling, wetland valuation, molecular biomonitoring, and restoration financing. Outcomes will be synthesized for translational decision support via the ECOCARE web portal. The reserch will determine fundamental drivers and decision metrics for wetland management across varied ecological, economic, and geographic settings. With nearly 40% of americans living in coastal counties, this research is highly relevant to building community resilience and economic sustainability. A transdisciplinary workforce will be established through the training and mentoring of students, postdocs, and early-career faculty members. The project is led by the university of rhode island and the louisiana state university (LSU). Partnering institutions include roger williams university, LSU health sciences center new orleans, louisiana universities marine consortium, RI department of environmental management, and LA coastal protection and restoration authority. The ECOCARE project addresses three use-inspired questions: how can wetland resilience be consistently characterized and compared across hydrological and geomorphic settings? How can scientific insights be synthesized into transferable monitoring, modeling, and restoration approaches? How can generalizable frameworks be established to assess wetland condition, predict trajectory, and value ecosystem services across various U.S. Coastal systems? The research will be CO-developed with community partners and leverages complementary expertise in coastal ecology, environmental biotechnology, computational modeling, wetland economics, financing, and coastal policies. Comparative analyses of wetland systems in RI and LA as two distinct examples of coastal systems will provide a unique opportunity for knowledge transfer across different ecological, economic, and geographic settings. Workforce development will include research and career development opportunities for students, postdocs, and early-career faculty, with extended impact achieved by (1) offering hands-on training modules to the wider community and (2) hosting summer gateway workshops for community college trainees. Broader dissemination of project outcomes will be achieved via community user training workshops and public exhibition of visualization products featuring renderings of wetland data and modeling outcomes. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are planned for this award.