CoNNECT Lab
Leveraging data to visualize pathways for transformative change.
Policy Solutions Explored Here
Climate and other global changes are wicked problems—driven by dynamic complexity across large-scale, linked, and interdependent systems that span jurisdictions, sectors and communities. Envisioning more hopeful futures and taking bold action requires both complex data synthesis and collaborative engagement with diverse stakeholders.
NC State brings unrivaled technological capacity, domain expertise and interdisciplinary strength to this challenge. The CoNNECT Lab harnesses these assets to visualize change and lead innovative, data-informed dialogues that proactively engage community members, policymakers and other decision-makers in addressing complex and scientifically challenging questions.
CoNNECT Lab
Co-production Nexus for Negotiation, Engagement, Collaboration and Transformation
Science co-production is central to the CoNNECT Lab’s mission. This approach:
- Makes human values, preferences and priorities explicit;
- Acknowledges uncertainties while propelling systems-level thinking;
- Recognizes multiple ways of knowing; and
- Promotes adaptive learning, iteration and exploration.
The Lab integrates these principles to build an ecosystem of tools, people and processes that support collaborative climate governance and resilient futures.
What We Do
Build Data-Driven Models and Tools
We design and develop analytical models, data tools and computational visualizations in collaboration with expert storytellers, designers and visual artists. These tools foster intuitive exploration, support learning and help stakeholders imagine alternative futures.
Connect Lived Experience with Data
By blending computational modeling with narratives, media and artistic visualization, we make abstract or uncertain climate futures understandable, tangible and discussable. Our work allows users to explore locally relevant trends and examine outcomes across environmental and social change scenarios.
Facilitate Dialogue, Discovery and Action
We convene a range of participants—residents, practitioners, students, researchers and policymakers—to engage in structured deliberation. These dialogues highlight tradeoffs, illuminate pathways to increase resilience to impending change and identify opportunities for more hopeful and prosperous futures.
Support Anticipatory Governance and Policy Innovation
Our work advances future-ready governance by helping audiences:
- Understand complex system dynamics;
- Explore policy pathways;
- Identify tradeoffs and synergies;
- Co-design strategies for sustainable adaptation, mitigation and transformation.
The Lab’s participatory processes and visual tools empower communities and decision-makers to navigate uncertainty while positioning North Carolina as a leader in responses to global change.
FutureScape: Gaming the Path to Transformative Futures
FutureScape is a serious game that brings the CoNNECT Lab’s mission to life—turning complex climate data and uncertainty into collaborative, actionable exploration. Used to envision how climate change may transform the landscape of North Carolina’s coastal plain, players must take actions to resist, direct or accept projected changes while accounting for the needs of multiple sectors.
Immersive Visualization Spaces
Through NC State’s immersive visualization environments, we enable interactive exploration of climate, environmental, social, and policy scenarios. These spaces provide:
- Multi-sensory, spatially-rich experiences;
- Intuitive visual interfaces;
- Platforms for collaborative learning;
- Environments to uncover hidden tradeoffs among potential strategies.
These sessions help participants investigate how different decisions ripple across systems and what forms of institutional resilience are possible under alternative futures.
Our Approach
The CoNNECT Lab integrates:
- Novel engagement processes
- Interdisciplinary computational modeling
- Data synthesis and analytics
- Narrative storytelling and visualization
- Collaborative dialogue and deliberation
- Science co-production and adaptive learning
- Policy and governance innovation
Together, these elements support a unique model for envisioning transformative change and designing futures that benefit communities, the state, the nation and the world.
Get in Touch with Our Team
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