Collaborative Research: NRT-INFEWS: Systems Thinking Training for Research ON Geography-based Coastal Food Energy Water Systems (STRONG-CFEWS)

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With 40% of the world's population residing within 100 kilometers of a coast, these environments are critical to local and global economies. In China, the world's largest exporter, more than half of the country's population lives along its industrialized coastlines. Population densities in the United States are highest in coastal counties, representing 39% of the U.S. population. In such densely populated areas, human activity related to the generation and use of food, energy and water has been linked to impacts such as nitrogen pollution that degrades the quality of coastal waters. This degradation affects reef ecosystems, fisheries, and people's economic livelihoods and health. Replenishment requires innovative systems thinking and better consideration of the way food, energy, and water systems are integrated in terrestrial and coastal environments. Systems thinking considers the whole system including engineered infrastructure, the environment, and sociocultural aspects, rather than an assembly of isolated parts. Integrating sociocultural dynamics and meaningful engagement of community stakeholders is fundamental to this approach. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to the University of South Florida (USF) and the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) will develop a community-engaged training and research program in systems thinking. Graduate Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students will design innovative, holistic solutions (e.g., technological, organizational) to better manage complex and interconnected food, energy, and water systems in coastal locations. The project will train 109 graduate students, including 23 funded PhD-level trainees from engineering and applied anthropology at USF and 6 MS-level trainees from marine and environmental sciences from the Historically Black University partner, UVI in four locations: Tampa, Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Barbados and Belize. This award will prepare students to create innovative systems to address complex problems and will serve as a model for training a STEM-focused workforce.The research supporting this training program focuses on the leverage points (technological, policy, and organizational) in designing food-energy-water systems in a specific geographic context to improve the sustainability of the overall system across different scales. This NRT will advance graduate training through: 1) a transformative research training framework guiding students to conceptualize the interactions between food-energy-water systems and define their research questions from a systems perspective; 2) a context based interdisciplinary training approach including newly developed co-taught courses, multi-discipline field-based training and research experiences that take place in the U.S. and internationally, and strong partnerships with local practitioners and community-grounded organizations; and 3) learning outcomes of our program in terms of interdisciplinary, 21st century, and local and global competency skills of graduate students and impactful research in the management of resources for food, energy, and water security. The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The Traineeship Track is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary research areas, through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.This project is co-funded by the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program. The LSAMP program supports comprehensive, evidence-based, and sustained approaches to broadening participation of students from racial and ethnic groups historically underrepresented in STEM.