View to the southeast along the Paxton Ranch fault, which ruptured in the M7.1 Ridgecrest earthquake of July 5, 2019. Photo by Katherine Kendrick.

In September 2019, the NSF Division of Earth Sciences announced plans for an open competition of one or more earthquake research centers following SCEC5. Many members of the SCEC community reached out to provide feedback and expressed eagerness to contribute to the future of SCEC. In January 2020, NSF published a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) requesting input to formulate the solicitation from the academic community by April 1, 2020. Various groups within the SCEC community explored how we may broaden and deepen our future earthquake research endeavors by writing white papers. Others used this opportunity to share their own experiences as participants in a large, distributed earthquake research center and ideas on key characteristics that make research collaborations effective. Below is a list of white papers we received from people who responded to the NSF DCL. These ideas—and others that emerge from the SCEC community—will be discussed and refined as we develop together the intellectual scope of the next phase of the Center.

If you would like to have your DCL response to be included in the list, please email web@scec.org with PDF as submitted to NSF.