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得在全球范围内确保公平获得食物、水和经济安全变得困难，特别是对妇女和弱势群体而言。在摩洛哥南部，农村妇女从事摩洛哥坚果油的生产，这种油是从一种当地树木的坚果中提取的。作为世界市场上需求量很大的食用和化妆品，摩洛哥坚果为当地社区提供了食物和收入来源，并通过保护防止侵蚀和荒漠化的摩洛哥坚果树而有益于环境。通过一个跨学科的实地学校，美国学生将在三个暑假期间与摩洛哥的教师和学生一起进行研究，调查妇女生产摩洛哥坚果的环境和社会经济方面的问题。该项目为18名在加州大学默塞德分校和南加州大学攻读环境工程、系统和人类学本科和研究生课程的美国学生提供了专业发展机会。南加州大学和加州大学默塞德分校与摩洛哥阿加迪尔的Dar Si Hmad发展、教育和文化学院以及伊本佐尔大学合作，为学生提供国际研究经验。学生通过该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。这个南加州大学和加州大学默塞德分校合作的IRES项目的总体目标是培养一支跨学科的劳动力队伍来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)为环境工程师、科学家和人类学家提供跨学科的夏季研究机会；(2)教育学生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)培训学生家庭生计系统方法和民族志和定性研究方法；(4)与东道国社区和合作机构交流研究成果，以提高摩洛哥坚果油生产的环境可持续性和社会经济效益，作为其他粮食系统的典范；(5)增加代表性不足的少数民族、妇女和低收入学生参与国际研究的数量，提高美国劳动力的长期全球竞争力；(6)加强美国和国际机构在摩洛哥的合作。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。

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.