A US-Africa workshop for a science and research vision on the food-water-energy (FEW) nexus

该奖项将资助在塞内加尔达喀尔举行的下一届爱因斯坦论坛（NEF）之前举行的为期两天的卫星研讨会。该研讨会将于2016年3月6日至7日举行，重点是促进美国与非洲在粮食、能源和水（FEW）关系研究挑战方面的合作。为人类发展提供充足的食物、能源和水对环境造成巨大压力。全球范围的挑战需要理解生态系统、气候和社会动态之间复杂且特征不充分的相互关系。本次研讨会将汇集一个由美国和非洲研究人员组成的跨学科团队，以突出围绕FEW关系的关键研究问题，概述战略和解决方案，并为未来的FEW研究目标提供愿景。把重点放在非洲是适当的，因为如果不考虑非洲大陆，就不可能完整地理解少数民族之间的关系，非洲大陆占世界人口的20%，全球陆地面积的60%，可能是全球可耕地的60%，正在经历快速的森林砍伐和严重的生态系统退化挑战，并且全球人口的快速增长和年轻的16%越来越多地从农村转移到城市。非洲现在是，而且将越来越成为少数关系研究的重要地区，美国科学家需要更好地接触最好的科学家以及关键地点和设施。因此，在非洲举行这次会议，使更多的非洲科学家能够参加，将是很有价值的。此外，这次会议的初步成果将在下一次爱因斯坦论坛上介绍，为关心非洲科学与发展的一大批有影响力的决策者和利益攸关方提供一个机会，更实质性地审议少数妇女问题的关系。考虑到系统的少数系统作为一个大规模的时空优化的挑战，以管理生态系统的有限资源，通过环境过程的可持续管理，确保粮食，能源和水的目标。在环境科学、生态学、水文学、生物学、农业、经济学、文化人类学和地理学方面具有专长的美国和非洲研究人员将参加。对话和由此产生的合作应改善美国研究人员了解非洲FEW系统的独特和可推广的元素，欣赏现有的研究和资源，并为未来的研究涉及与Africa.This活动是共同资助的国际科学与工程办公室（OISE）和化学，生物工程，环境和运输系统（CBET）的部门。

This award will fund a two-day satellite workshop prior to the Next Einstein Forum (NEF) in Dakar, Senegal. The workshop will be held on March 6-7, 2016, and will focus on enabling US-African collaboration on research challenges related to the food, energy, water (FEW) nexus. Providing adequate food, energy, and water for human development places enormous pressure on the environment. The planetary scale of the challenge requires understanding complex and inadequately characterized inter-relationships between ecosystems, climate, and social dynamics. This workshop will bring together an interdisciplinary team of U.S. and African researchers to sharpen the critical research questions surrounding the FEW nexus, to outline strategies and solutions, and to offer a vision for future FEW research goals, particularly in Africa.The focus on Africa is appropriate since understanding of the FEW nexus cannot possibly be complete without considering the African continent which includes 20% of the global land mass, perhaps 60% of the global arable land, is experiencing rapid deforestation and significant ecosystem degradation challenges, and has a rapidly growing and young 16% of the global population increasingly shifting from rural to urban demographics. Africa is and will increasingly be an important region for FEW nexus research and U.S. scientists need better access to the best scientists as well as key sites and facilities. It will therefore be valuable to hold this meeting in Africa to enable a larger number of African scientists to participate. In addition, the preliminary outputs of this meeting will be presented at the Next Einstein Forum, providing an opportunity for a large and influential group of policy makers and stakeholders interested in science and development in Africa to consider the FEW nexus more substantively.This workshop will pursue a relatively quantitative approach to understanding the FEW nexus in Africa, considering the FEW system of systems as a large-scale space-time optimization challenge to manage the limited resources of ecosystems with the objective of securing food, energy and water via sustainable management of environmental processes. U.S. and African researchers with expertise in environmental science, ecology, hydrology, biology, agriculture, economics, cultural anthropology and geography will participate. The dialogue and resulting collaborations should improve future opportunities for US researcher to understand unique and generalizable elements of African FEW systems, appreciate existing research and resources, and prepare for future research involving collaboration with Africa.This activity is co-funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) and the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET).