IRES Track 1: US-Morocco Collaborative Research for Socially and Environmentally Sustainable Women's Argan Oil Production

人口增长和气候变化使确保全球范围内公平获得食物、水和经济安全变得困难，尤其是妇女和弱势社区。在摩洛哥南部，农村妇女从事从当地一种树的坚果中提取的阿甘油的生产。作为世界市场上需求量很大的一种食用和化妆品，ArGan为当地社区提供了一种食物和收入来源，并通过保护防止侵蚀和沙漠化的Aran树来造福环境。通过为期三个暑假的跨学科野外学校，美国学生将与摩洛哥教职员工和学生一起进行研究，调查女性生产Aran的环境和社会经济方面的问题。该项目为加州大学默塞德分校和美国旧金山大学环境工程、系统与人类学专业的18名美国本科生和研究生提供职业发展机会。USF和加州大学默塞德分校与Dar Si Hmad发展、教育和文化部门以及摩洛哥阿加迪尔的Ibn Zohr大学合作，为学生提供国际研究体验。学生通过这个项目获得的技能和经验将适用于美国和世界各地的其他食品和生计系统。这一美国联邦-加州大学默塞德IRES合作项目的总体目标是培训一支跨学科的劳动力队伍，以研究和设计社会和环境可持续和公平的系统。USF-UC Merced IRES的具体目标是：(1)在环境工程师、科学家和人类学家之间提供跨学科的暑期研究机会；(2)教育学生进行环境和社会生命周期评估(E-LCA和S-LCA)和更好地设计系统的思维；(3)培训学生了解家庭生计系统办法以及人种学和质量研究方法；(4)与主办社区和伙伴机构交流研究成果，以改善环境可持续性和将精油生产作为其他食品系统的榜样的社会经济效益；(5)增加未被充分代表的少数族裔、妇女、该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Population growth and changing climates have made it difficult to ensure equitable access to food, water, and economic security across the globe, particularly for women and vulnerable communities. In southern Morocco, rural women engage in the production of argan oil that is extracted from the nuts of an indigenous tree. As both an edible and cosmetic product in high demand on the world market, argan provides a source of food and income to local communities and benefits the environment by conserving argan trees that prevent erosion and desertification. Through an interdisciplinary field school over three summers, U.S. students will conduct research with Moroccan faculty and students to investigate environmental and socioeconomic aspects of women’s argan production. This project provides professional development opportunities for 18 U.S. students in undergraduate and graduate programs in Environmental Engineering and Systems and Anthropology at UC Merced and USF. USF and UC Merced have partnered with Dar Si Hmad for Development, Education and Culture and Université Ibn Zohr in Agadir, Morocco to provide international research experience for students. The skills and experience students gain through this project will be applicable to other food and livelihood systems in the United States and throughout the world. The overall goal of this collaborative USF-UC Merced IRES project is to train an interdisciplinary workforce to research and design socially and environmentally sustainable and equitable systems. Specific objectives of USF-UC Merced IRES are to: (1) Provide interdisciplinary summer research opportunities between environmental engineers and scientists and anthropologists, (2) Educate students in environmental and social life cycle assessment (E-LCA and S-LCA) and thinking to better design systems, (3) Train students in household livelihood systems approaches and ethnographic and qualitative research methods, (4) Exchange research findings with host communities and partner institutions to improve the environmental sustainability and socioeconomic benefits of argan oil production as a model for other food systems, (5) Increase the amount of underrepresented minorities, women, and lower income students that participate in international research and improve the long-term global competency of the U.S. workforce, and (6) Strengthen collaboration between the United States and international institutions in Morocco.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.