NRT-INFEWS: Interdisciplinary Training, Education and Research for Food-Energy-Water Systems (InTERFEWS) in Semi-Arid Regions

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As the population continues to grow and demands for resources increase, understanding the nexus of Food-Energy-Water (FEW) systems is vital to ensure the reliability and equity of access to crucial resources. FEW systems are tightly intertwined and involve complex tradeoffs that are not well understood. Characterizing the demands for and tradeoffs amongst FEW resources is particularly challenging in semi-arid regions, where increasing population trends are likely to continue, and water shortage poses risks to agriculture and energy industries. To develop appropriate technologies and to enhance FEW system management, the next generation of analysts and researchers must be trained to develop a system-level understanding of FEW issues. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to Colorado State University will address this need by undertaking research and training focused on FEW systems in semi-arid regions. The project will prepare a diverse cohort of graduate students with the transdisciplinary skills and knowledge necessary to make meaningful contributions to the complex and changing interactions in FEW systems. The project anticipates training thirty-four (34) PhD students, including sixteen (16) funded trainees. To foster interdisciplinary interactions, trainees will come from a broad range of disciplines including engineering, economics, natural resource sciences, and sociology.The Interdisciplinary Training, Education and Research in Food-Energy-Water Systems (InTERFEWS) project addresses issues in science, technology, engineering, and math education, such as lack of capacity to provide students with skills to solve complex problems and work across disciplines. To develop these skills, InTERFEWS will use the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework as a conceptual guide for assessing FEW system problems and to underpin intentional integration of research, education, and training activities. The DPSIR framework will provide a platform to promote interactions across disciplines and provide students with needed skills in systems-level thinking and problem solving. InTERFEWS includes four main components: (1) a curriculum that includes three new InTERFEWS courses along with a set of existing elective courses to specifically address FEW systems issues; (2) apprenticeships on FEW systems topics organized through partnerships with industry, government agencies and non-profits; (3) transdisciplinary problem-solving and communications training; and (4) collaborative research to foster technological, policy, and institutional innovations. The program will break down barriers to transdisciplinary education by including physical sciences, decision-making, big data and analytics, economics, policy, and social sciences in the curriculum. Results and successful practices will be broadly disseminated to the education community.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.