NRT-INFEWS: Agricultural Biotechnology in Our Evolving Food, Energy & Water Systems (AgBioFEWS)

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Innovations in agricultural biotechnology may fulfill biotechnology's longstanding promise to help feed the world's growing population while preserving ecosystem integrity. Yet past experience suggests that paths from technological innovation to improved sustainability and productivity entail considerable complexity and uncertainty. Meeting challenges of improving food, energy and water (FEW) systems requires the integration of knowledge from a number of natural sciences as well as from social, political, and ethical domains. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to North Carolina State University will provide graduate students who are enrolled in diverse natural and social science masters and PhD programs with the interdisciplinary knowledge and approaches needed to help forge futures where agricultural biotechnology applications enhance FEW systems while minimizing unintended consequences. In all, the AgBioFEWS program will train at least sixty-two (62) masters and PhD students, including twenty-two (22) funded PhD students, from biological, agricultural, and social sciences. The traineeship program will partner with two historically black universities, offering internships to their students, and will establish a path for these students to join the NRT program. Continuous interaction with experts from industry, government, and non-profit agencies will expose students to diverse career paths. For a new generation of students to contribute to development and utilization of agricultural biotechnology in ways that enhance FEW systems, they must be able to integrate knowledge and uncertainties from diverse, sophisticated fields of study; understand how facts and values influence decision-making; and establish their trustworthiness through evidence-based engagement with diverse communities. Tapping into North Carolina State's extension network, AgBioFEWS trainees will begin their programs living together in a small farming community situated in an ecologically fragile landscape. They will receive hands-on learning from farmers, extension agents, conservationists, and other public stakeholders in rural North Carolina. This experience is also designed to build team cohesiveness. Subsequent coursework and activities will expand student perspectives on agricultural biotechnology and FEW systems to national and international scales. AgBioFEWS course offerings will be integrated into an established graduate minor in Genetic Engineering and Society and an emerging minor in Public Science. The courses will address techniques of genetic engineering, agriculture, policy analysis, science communication, and other topics needed to prepare students for careers in government, industry, international development, and academia. All AgBioFEWS trainees will participate in an interdisciplinary team project under the direction of 2-3 faculty members, and doctoral trainees are expected to incorporate interdisciplinary agricultural biotechnology and FEW systems into their dissertations. Major research efforts range from investigating the impact of current biotechnology products on FEW socio-ecological systems to the development of potential future products. 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 program 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 award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.