IGERT: Water Across Boundaries - Integration of Science, Engineering, and Diplomacy

这一综合性研究生教育与研究培训(IGERT)奖支持塔夫茨大学发展跨学科研究生培训项目，重点是水外交。其目标是培养学生能够跨越自然和社会边界进行思考，并产生可操作的知识，以帮助解决具有相互竞争的需求的水问题。许多水问题的根源是自然和社会领域变量之间的竞争、相互联系和反馈的动态结果。虽然科学的制定和工程解决方案对于满足这些需求是必要的，但社会和政治背景必须是长期解决方案的组成部分。水问题的表述和框架是错综复杂地联系在一起的；因此，不能单独对待自然和社会领域的变量。这一IGERT的一个主要特点是综合了这些观点--通过整合科学、工程、政策和外交方面的知识--这对有效的水管理解决方案至关重要。这一IGERT将培养一批具有深厚的学科基础和经验的新的水资源专业人员，作为具有跨学科专长和谈判技能的问题解决者。强有力的制度支持和拟议的创新--例如，整合科学评估和政策相关性以创造可操作的知识、现实世界中的探索性研究经验、国内和国际实地工作的机会，以及让学生参与协同的跨学科活动--将把这个IGERT项目转变为一个过程，将继续培养具有跨越边界的技能和能力的新一代水专业人员，并产生远远超出这种能力的影响。IGERT是一个NSF范围的项目，旨在应对培养具有跨学科背景、选定学科的深厚知识以及技术、专业、以及满足未来职业需求所需的个人技能。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 Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award supports the development of an interdisciplinary graduate training program at Tufts University, focused on water diplomacy. The goal is to prepare students who can think across natural and societal boundaries and generate actionable knowledge to help resolve water problems with competing needs. The origin of many water problems is a dynamic consequence of competition, interconnections, and feedback among variables in the natural and societal domains. While scientific formulation and engineering solutions are necessary to address these needs, societal and political contexts must be an integral part of long-term solutions. Formulation and framing of water problems are intricately linked; consequently, variables in natural and societal domains cannot be treated independently. A main feature of this IGERT is the synthesis of these viewpoints--through integration of knowledge from science, engineering, policy and diplomacy--critical to effective water management solutions. This IGERT will prepare a new cadre of water professionals with strong disciplinary grounding and experience as problem solvers with interdisciplinary expertise and negotiation skills. Strong institutional support and proposed innovations--e.g., integrating scientific assessment and policy relevance to create actionable knowledge, exploratory research experience in real world settings, opportunities for national and international field work, and engaging students in synergistic interdisciplinary activities--will transform this IGERT project into a process that will continue to produce a new generation of water professionals with the skills and aptitude to cross boundaries and create an impact far beyond this grant.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.