Flowchart for self-assessing ethical and equitable engagement for energy data

Description

Notes

Abstract

The data and cyberinfrastructure teams at Alaska Center for Energy and Power (ACEP) share how we assess our own handling of energy data from the framework of ethical, equitable engagement, and community-led energy transitions. Our assessment particularly focuses on how we can center community-level decision-making and Indigenous leadership in the process of working with community energy data.

We created this assessment tool to ensure we are sufficiently prioritizing relationship-building, societal benefits, and long-term collaboration with and for the benefit of Indigenous communities that partner with ACEP on energy research. ACEP’s data and cyberinfrastructure self-assessment is part of a large emphasis and
research inquiry into how socio-technical data systems can be designed to align with both community and researcher objectives. In the future we hope to apply this tool in team “retrospectives” to continuously improve our internal processes, as well as analyze case studies from ACEP’s research where communities are leading energy transitions, demonstrating how community ownership of energy data and projects ensures equity and long-term success.

In the process, research team also reflected on how the assessment incorporates Kawerak-Region Tribal Research Protocols, Guidelines, Expectations, and Best Practices (Kawerak, 2024), the Circumpolar Inuit Protocols for Ethical and Equitable Engagement (ICC, 2021), the SAON ROADS process (Starkweather et al, 2021), and the CARE principles (GIDA, 2020) - seminal works that play a role in helping ACEP to effectively support Indigenous data sovereignty and fostering trust in energy data research.

Technical info

Symbology for flowchart shapes