IGERT: Food Systems and Poverty Reduction

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。这一综合性研究生教育和研究培训(IGERT)奖支持制定与减贫有关的食品系统教育和研究的多学科研究生培训计划。大多数长期赤贫的人生活在发展中国家的农村地区，严重依赖粮食系统--调节粮食生产、分配和消费的人类管理的生物物理系统--作为生产者、消费者和/或工人。粮食系统的改进刺激了人类福祉的长期改善，然而，目前正遭受极端贫困之苦的人们却没有得到这些改善。该课程为研究生提供了必要的概念和方法工具，以了解导致农村极端贫困的复杂系统的结构和动态。这种对他们自己的学科研究所适应的更大背景的丰富理解，提高了学生评估特定学科科学发现的影响、潜力和影响的能力。该项目的一个显著特点是，学生们在东非共享研究地点的跨学科研究团队中工作，围绕着智力上具有挑战性的、生态上复杂的和社会经济上重要的问题进行组织，这些问题导致极端贫困，需要广泛了解的科学和政策来解决。由此产生的培训将建立一支由熟练的自然和社会科学家组成的多样化队伍，能够整合来自不同子系统的信息，进行科学合理的系统研究，以帮助推动制定可在世界范围内减少极端贫困的粮食系统干预措施和战略。IGERT是一个NSF范围内的项目，旨在应对培养具有跨学科背景、所选学科的深厚知识以及满足未来职业需求所需的技术、专业和个人技能的美国博士科学家和工程师的挑战。该项目旨在通过建立创新的研究生教育和培训新模式，在超越传统学科界限的合作研究的肥沃环境中，催化研究生教育的文化变革。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009(Public Law 111-5). This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) award supports the development of a multidisciplinary graduate training program of education and research in food systems as they relate to poverty reduction. Most people suffering chronic extreme poverty live in rural areas in developing countries and rely heavily on food systems - the human-managed biophysical systems that regulate the production, distribution and consumption of food - as producers, consumers and/or workers. Food systems improvements have stimulated long-term improvements in human well-being yet these improvements elude people currently suffering extreme poverty. This program provides graduate students with the conceptual and methodological tools necessary for understanding the structure and dynamics of complex systems that perpetuate extreme rural poverty. This rich understanding of the larger context into which their own disciplinary studies fit enhances students' ability to assess the implications, potential and impact of discipline-specific scientific discoveries. A distinguishing feature of this program is that students work in interdisciplinary research teams at shared research sites in East Africa, organized around intellectually challenging, ecologically complex and socioeconomically important problems that drive extreme poverty and require broadly informed science and policies to address. The resulting training will build a diverse cadre of skilled natural and social scientists able to integrate information from diverse sub-systems to conduct scientifically sound, systems-based research to help spur the development of food system interventions and strategies that can reduce extreme poverty worldwide. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.