Collaborative Research: IRES Track III: Partnerships Along the Headwaters of the Americas for Young Scientists Program

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Many towns and cities worldwide rely on water from glaciers, snowpack, and groundwater in watersheds at high elevations, called headwaters. Water supplies from these types of headwaters are predicted to shift with climate change. These shifts threaten the viability of downstream communities that rely on these changing water supplies for activities such as agriculture and energy production. We need a diverse and globally engaged workforce to study these changes in water resources. Focusing on Latin America, this Partnerships Along the Headwaters of the Americas for Young Scientists Program trains graduate students from across the United States to study these complex water management problems so that we may ensure the viability of headwater-dependent communities across the Americas into the future. This program will do this by providing graduate students with research guidance and mentorship from established scientists working across Latin America. The program will build synergies with an existing NSF funded research coordination network (RCN), which has produced an interdisciplinary team of collaborators from six countries and twelve organizations stretching from Alberta, Canada to Patagonia, Chile. This program will guide students to address interdisciplinary, international and interorganizational water resources challenges as they design their own research studies within diverse headwater-dependent communities across Latin America. Pathways students and their mentors will allow us to understand what strategies may best allow communities to respond to changes in water availability. Study sites are located in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. The research design process includes six steps: (1) Preparation and planning; (2) A two week summer-school in Chile; (3) An international research experience at one of the designated sites; (4) Continued engagement and mentoring upon return to the US; (5) A culminating event with oral, online presentations on the experiences; and (6) Continued engagement in future RCN activities. The international research experience will be two to four months in duration depending on the student’s timeline. From the point of acceptance in the program through the culminating event, students will be engaged in the Pathways Program for 18 months. By the end of this process, this program will have produced water resources professionals with the scientific and cultural know-how to work effectively in a variety of headwater and communities. Through this program, these students will ultimately grow research and outreach capacity at US institutions of higher education with the scientific and cultural sophistication to work effectively in international settings.This project is jointly funded by the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.