NRT‐URoL: BRIDGES ‐ Building Resources for InterDisciplinary training in Genomic and Ecosystem Sciences

生态系统基因组学这门新科学将研究生态系统如何运作的大规模科学与研究生物基因和基因组如何与环境相互作用的小规模科学相结合。生态系统基因组学有望提供新的知识，以维持支持人类社会、与人类社会相互作用并受到人类社会破坏的生物系统，例如向世界提供食物的农业生态系统，以及更广泛地说，在自然和人工管理的生态系统中塑造地方、区域和全球能源、水和碳循环的植物、微生物和昆虫。限制生态系统基因组学前景实现的挑战是跨学科整合：从根本上说，是教育和培训的挑战。这项授予亚利桑那大学的国家科学基金会研究培训（NRT）奖将通过培养多样化的科学家骨干来促进生物尺度和科学学科的创新来应对这一挑战。该项目将使科学技术领域多样化并提高包容性，这是增强智力实力和促进跨学科发展的关键。该项目预计将培养一个智力和文化多元化的40名硕士和博士学生，其中包括20名nrt资助的学员。学员将从广泛的学科中招募，包括基因组学、数据科学、生态系统和环境科学、水文学和大气科学、生态学以及植物、昆虫和微生物生物学。BRIDGES项目将实施一项培训计划，其中包括：(1)跨学科课程和新的研究生辅修课程；(2)新颖的、以社会科学为基础的“科学文化”培训（融入自然科学培训计划），基于真正的跨学科研究不仅是技术挑战，也是弥合学科间文化差异的挑战；(3)以团队为基础的研究经验，重点关注诸如增强美国西南部作物抗旱性等主题（与行业合作）；整合微生物组科学、数据分析和基因组学（与一家美国初创公司合作）；参与从沙漠到雨林的生物群落（在UA的生物圈2）；利用多组学技术（与世界领先的美国政府研究实验室合作）；以及菲律宾（推进可持续水稻生产）和法国（在世界一流的Ecotron设施用精确的生态系统实验测试进化生态学理论）面临的全球挑战；(4)在少数民族高中的教学和推广经验，(5)专业发展培训，以及(6)生态系统基因组学融合年度研究所，NRT学员有机会提出建议，分享团队研究经验的结果，并参加专业发展和包容性培训的互动研讨会，教学法，科学传播和科学实践。结果和成功的实践将广泛传播到教育界，因为该计划多样化并实施了STEM的最佳实践，同时培养了生态系统基因组学领域的新一代跨学科科学家。美国国家科学基金会研究实习生（NRT）计划旨在鼓励开发和实施大胆的、具有潜在变革性的STEM研究生教育培训新模式。该项目致力于通过创新、循证、适应不断变化的劳动力和研究需求的综合培训模式，在高优先级跨学科或融合研究领域对STEM研究生进行有效培训。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。

The new science of ecosystem genomics integrates the large-scale science of how ecosystems work with the small-scale science of how genes and genomes of organisms interact with their environments. Ecosystem genomics promises new knowledge to sustain the biological systems that support, interact with, and are disrupted by human society, such as the agroecosystems that supply food to the world -- and, more generally, the plants, microbes, and insects that shape local, regional, and global cycles of energy, water, and carbon in both natural and managed ecosystems. The challenge that limits fulfillment of the promise of ecosystem genomics is transdisciplinary integration: fundamentally, an education and training challenge. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to the University of Arizona will address this challenge by training a diverse cadre of scientists to catalyze innovation across biological scales and science disciplines. This project will diversify and improve inclusion in science and technology fields, key to enhancing intellectual strength and fostering transdisciplinarity. The project anticipates training an intellectually and culturally diverse group of 40 MS and PhD students, including 20 NRT-funded trainees. Trainees will be recruited from a broad range of disciplines, including genomics, data science, ecosystem and environmental science, hydrology and atmospheric sciences, ecology, and plant-, insect-, and microbial biology.The BRIDGES project will implement a training program that combines (1) an interdisciplinary curriculum and a new graduate minor; (2) novel, social science-based “Cultures of Science” training (integrated into the natural science training program), based on the insight that truly transdisciplinary research is not just a technical challenge, but also one of bridging cultural differences between disciplines; (3) team-based research experiences focusing on topics such as enhancing crop resistance to drought in the southwest US (with industry partnership); integrative microbiome science, data analytics, and genomics (with a US start-up company); engagement with biomes from desert to rainforest (at UA’s Biosphere 2); leveraging multi-omics technologies (with a world-leading U.S. government research laboratory); and global challenges in the Philippines (advancing sustainable rice production) and France (testing evolution-ecology theories with precision ecosystem experiments at the world-class Ecotron facility); (4) teaching and outreach experiences including at minority-serving high schools, (5) professional development training, and (6) an Annual Institute in Ecosystem Genomics Convergence, an opportunity for NRT trainees to advance proposals, share results of team-based research experiences, and participate in interactive workshops for professional development and training in inclusivity, pedagogy, science communication, and the practice of science. Results and successful practices will be broadly disseminated to the education community as the program diversifies and implements best practices for inclusion in STEM while fostering a new generation of transdisciplinary scientists in ecosystem genomics.The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.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.