Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Polymer Enhanced Biology - CPEB

工程研究中心的规划赠款竞争是作为ERC计划内的试点招标运行。ERC竞赛并不要求提供规划赠款，而是旨在培养团队规划集中的、中心规模的工程研究的能力。随着预计到2050年全球人口接近100亿，满足粮食、能源和水的需求已成为新千年最深刻的挑战之一。 随着新技术的进步，这些威胁美国健康、财富和安全的重大全球性问题可以通过将生物学和聚合物融合在一种范式转变的方法中来缓解，在这种方法中，聚合物是解决方案的一部分，而不是问题的一部分。 例如，聚合物增强细胞有望通过提高动物饲料中益生菌的稳定性来消除家禽中沙门氏菌污染的祸害（仅在美国每年就造成120万例疾病）。 聚合物增强的蛋白质可以消除集约化畜牧业中的磷酸盐废物（如果不解决，磷酸盐废物将在2050年之前使土地不可耕地），并对抗可以迅速摧毁农业农场的病原体。 聚合物增强型酶可以在农药污染地下水之前在使用点对其进行净化（现在在超过95%的地下水中检测到农药）。 聚合物增强型生物催化剂可能最终能够降解和解决海洋中的微塑料污染（超过10万亿个颗粒污染水源，只有1%的塑料污染海洋）。 这笔规划补助金将用于组建一个大型团队，开发和部署生物杂交分子和细胞，作为转化全球重要问题的关键组成部分。该计划补助金将用于制定团队的战略，确保工作产生影响社会的开创性科学。该计划补助金将用于召集领域专家，并利用他们的知识规划一个复杂的基于团队的转型计划。 他们计划建立一个非凡的跨学科团队，解决阻止生物和非生物系统融合的主要障碍。 这笔赠款将支持必要的团队建设，以改变预测，合成，表征和利用生物杂交的重点领域。 战略规划倡议开始将在指定的重点领域举行四次小型务虚会。在每个小型务虚会中，一小组专家将会面，以确定障碍，解决方案和将组成团队的人员。 接下来，两个全球影响小型务虚会将聚合物增强生物学的领导者与食品，水和污染威胁可持续发展的领导者聚集在一起。 小型务虚会将作为最终规划会议期间审议的起点，该会议将用于为聚合物增强生物学的最终ERC制定研究，教育，推广和伙伴关系共识。 在整个务虚会和规划过程中，该计划的重点是在四个相互关联的ERC基础组成部分中制定一项综合战略：研究，工程劳动力发展，多样性/包容性文化和创新生态系统。该计划旨在利用新的科学和工程技术，通过教育、基础设施和创新来影响社会。 该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research.With an expected global population nearing 10 billion by 2050, meeting food, energy, and water needs has surfaced as one of the most profound challenges of the new millennium. With new technological advances, these significant global problems that threaten the health, wealth and security of the US can be alleviated by fusing biology and polymers in a paradigm shifting approaches where polymers are part of the solution instead of part of the problem. For example, polymer-enhanced cells hold the promise to eliminate the scourge of salmonella (causing 1.2 million illnesses per year in the US alone) contamination in poultry by increasing the stability of probiotics in animal feeds. Polymer-enhanced proteins may eliminate phosphate waste products in intensive animal farming (if unresolved the phosphate waste will render land non-arable by 2050) and combat pathogens that can rapidly decimate agriculture farms. Polymer-enhanced enzymes can decontaminate pesticides at the point of use before they contaminate ground water (pesticides are now detected in over 95% of ground water). Polymer-enhanced biocatalysts may be able to finally degrade and resolve microplastic pollution of our oceans (well in excess of 10 trillion particles contaminate water sources and only 1 percent of plastics contaminating our oceans are at the surface). This planning grant will be used to assemble a large team to develop and deploy biohybrid molecules and cells as key components in transforming problems of global significance. This planning grant will be used to formulate the strategy for the team, ensuring that the work generates pioneering science that impacts society.This planning grant will be used to assemble domain experts and use their knowledge to plan a complex team-based transformational program. They plan to build an extraordinary interdisciplinary team that tackles the major barriers that prevent fusion of biotic and abiotic systems. This grant will support the team building necessary to transform the focus areas of prediction, synthesis, characterization and utilization of biohybrids. The Strategic Planning Initiative will begin with four mini-retreats in designated Focus Areas. In each mini-retreat, a small group of specialists will meet to identify the barriers, solutions and people that will form the team. Next, two Global Impact mini-retreats will bring together leaders in polymer-enhanced biology with those in food, water and pollution threats to sustainability. The mini-retreats will serve as the starting point for the deliberations during the final planning session that will be used to develop the research, education, outreach and partnership consensus for an eventual ERC in Polymer-Enhanced Biology. Throughout the retreat and planning process, the plan is to focus on developing a comprehensive strategy in the four interconnected ERC foundational components: research, engineering workforce development, diversity/culture of inclusion, and the innovation ecosystem. The plan is to use new science and engineering to impact society through education, infrastructure, and innovation. Team-based science at the interface of chemistry and biology will deliver solutions to high priority problems of global significance.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.