After waiting months for federal funding to materialize, the Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center had to officially close its doors last week.
For over a decade, the center supported local researchers working to understand Hawaiʻi's climate — and how it's changing.
PI-CASC opened in 2012 as a partnership between the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, and the University of Guam with federal support from the U.S. Geological Survey, which is within the Department of the Interior.
In February, PI-CASC applied for a $10 million federal award in order to fund the next five years of operations.
The center had successfully re-upped its funding before, but this time, the DOI did not move the process forward. Funding for the center lapsed on Oct. 1.
In a statement on its website, PI-CASC said it will "drastically" reduce its services.
“Without funding for the Pacific Islands CASC, we are unable to add new expertise for climate adaptation or grow new partnerships with Indigenous communities, as well as Federal and State agencies across Hawaiʻi, Guam, and the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands,” the statement said, in part.
Plans to increase its staff, hire four new postdoc researchers, and expand its university consortium to include more colleges in the Pacific have also been put on hold.
Darren Lerner, the executive director of PI-CASC, said the DOI has not provided an explanation as to why the process has been halted or if it may resume.
While Lerner said he’s hopeful that DOI may still approve PI-CASC’s funding, bringing the center back to its previous capacity will be difficult.
“Even if they started that process tomorrow, it will take months to then result in funding being available to us here on our campuses,” he said.
Leadership at PI-CASC had anticipated that the center might close, as the funding award was expected by June.
Lerner said that six PI-CASC employees have taken other opportunities or are seeking new positions, and 14 graduate students have lost funding for research projects.
The Pacific climate hub was one of nine regional centers across the country.
Centers in the Northeast and South Central regions also saw their funding lapse last Wednesday.
What led to this development? Read HPR's past coverage of PI-CASC here.
