Collaborative Proposal: Fostering Cross-Disciplinary Relationships and Early-Career Development to Advance Interdisciplinary Research on Climate Change and Impacts

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Climate-change research involves complex interactions and feedbacks between physical, chemical, geological, and biological processes. Insights from human ecology, economics, sociology, political science, and other social sciences also must be integrated if we are to understand and mitigate global changes. The Dissertations Initiative for the Advancement of Climate Change Research, DISCCRS, fosters cross-disciplinary interactions across the natural and social sciences and facilitates early-career development for Ph.D. graduates embarking on interdisciplinary, socially relevant careers dedicated to understanding and mitigating climate change and impacts. The transition from student to professional one is a difficult one, and is particularly so for those engaged in interdisciplinary work. After years of disciplinary specialization, graduates interested in complex environmental systems such as climate change and impacts need to quickly develop collaborations across disciplinary and institutional boundaries. DISCCRS helps new professionals make such links--connections that might take years to develop otherwise. DISCCRS will improve the ability of new professionals to conduct interdisciplinary research and communicate results in a societally relevant context. Though difficult, such research often produces breakthroughs and insights with enormous potential benefits to society, results that would not be identified through strictly disciplinary efforts. This project builds on the success of a 2002-2004 pilot DISCCRS program, which fostered interdisciplinary communications across the natural sciences (physicists, chemists, biologists, mathematicians, modelers working with atmospheric, terrestrial or aquatic systems). The goal of the proposed program is to incorporate the social scientists to complete the integration of all researchers focused on improving our knowledge and ability to mitigate climate change and impacts.