An International Network-to-Network Approach to Generating New Scientific Community Collaborations in the Gulf of Mexico Region - A Case Study

该奖项将资助为美国和墨西哥利益相关者举办的研讨会的规划和实施，该研讨会致力于推进墨西哥湾地区气候变率及其对社区恢复力和适应能力的影响的研究。该讲习班旨在成为发展一个网络的网络的第一步，以协调现有的以墨西哥湾和周围沿海社区为重点的研究人员网络。网络中的网络将支持一个新的社区，以促进研究人员、教育工作者、工程师、决策者和公众的合作研究和教育。它将建立关键的研究重点，将自然科学和社会科学联系起来，以更好地了解气候变化中GOM系统的复杂性。然后，研究人员和资助机构可以利用这些优先事项作为焦点，解决最紧迫的科学问题，为决策提供有力和可操作的解决方案。这种网络对网络的方法将需要跨部门、跨学科和国际上基于风险的解决方案，因此将刺激超越传统边界的综合研究团队。该网络将通过开发新颖的数据和平台，促进社会、经济和环境科学的决策支持，改进地球系统预测，并通过调整研究以提供最先进的试验台和基础设施，促进集中创新和有针对性地利用有限的资源，以最大限度地发挥社会、经济和环境影响。该项目的一个平行成果将是记录用于促进网络的网络协作的方法的案例研究。该案例研究将记录现有网络之间共享研究优先事项的发展，对网络对网络合作价值的看法，以及启动这种方法所需的挑战、障碍和时间投入。该案例研究将为未来网络对网络合作的发展提供一个示例途径。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

This award funds planning and implementation of a workshop for stakeholders from the U.S. and Mexico working to advance research on climate variability and its impact on community resilience and adaptive capacity in the Gulf of Mexico region. The workshop is intended to be an initial step in developing a network of networks to coordinate among existing networks of researchers focused on the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding coastal communities. The network-of-networks will support a new community to facilitate collaborative research and education for researchers, educators, engineers, decision-makers and the public. It will establish critical research priorities that link natural and social sciences to better understand the complexity of GOM systems in a changing climate. The priorities can then be used as a focal point by researchers and funding agencies in addressing the most pressing science to inform robust and actionable solutions for decision-making. The network-to-network approach will require cross-sectoral, interdisciplinary and international risk-based solutions and thus will spur integrated research teams that transcend traditional boundaries. The network will foster focused innovation and targeted use of limited resources for maximum societal, economic and environmental impacts, by exploiting novel data and platforms, decision support that advances social, economic and environmental sciences, and improved earth systems forecasting, and by aligning research to provide state of the art testbeds and infrastructure. A parallel outcome of the project will be a case study documenting the methods used to facilitate the network-of-networks collaboration. The case study will document development of shared research priorities among existing networks, perceptions of the value of the network-to-network collaborations, along with the challenges, barriers and time investment necessary to initiate this approach. The case study will provide an example pathway for development of future network-to-network collaborations.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.