NSF Convergence Accelerator: Workshop for the Development of Infrastructure for Distributed Bio-Manufacturing and Bio-Readiness

我们快速制造治疗药物、材料和生物能源等生物解决方案的能力对我们的国家经济优势和国家安全至关重要。在21世纪，一个灵活的国家基础设施，以分布生物材料的制造，并为国家提供一定程度的“生物准备”，以应对全球流行病和生物威胁，是至关重要的。这一研究领域将形成一个由设施、设备、软件、协议、技术和人员组成的分布式网络，以开发应用程序和技术，并应对全球变暖和国际流行病等生物威胁。共享资源、软件、培训、人员和专业知识将使新的中心能够在面临国家威胁或经济需求时迅速创建。这项工作本质上是跨学科的，需要计算机科学家、材料科学家、分子生物学家、政府官员、法律专业知识和商业领袖。它将包括各种规模的学术、政府和商业合作伙伴。这将是一项真正独特的努力。这项提议是组织一个为期六节的虚拟研讨会系列，以开发一套连贯的生物制造和生物准备的需求、机会和挑战。这一系列研讨会将产生一套跨学科的报告，这些报告将被传达给国家科学基金会，作为“融合加速器”未来主题进行审议。在本系列研讨会期间产生的想法将影响生物制造、生物安全和生物准备方面的商业和学术发展和研究。作为回应，劳动力发展将需要新的培训和创造新的人员职位。学术研究和商业企业之间的合作模式将随着法律和政府机构的改变而改变，以实现这些联系。如果成功，这一努力将改变美国对其国家制造能力的看法，以及它对未来潜在全球威胁的回应方式。因此，一套定义明确、可访问并不断发展的工具、技术、软件、硬件和人员将可供美国使用，并视情况适用于全球。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Our ability to rapidly manufacture bio-based solutions like therapeutics, materials, and bio-energy is crucial to our national economic advantage and national security. An agile national infrastructure to distribute the manufacturing of biological materials as well as provide the nation with a level of “bio-readiness” to address global pandemics and bio-threats is crucial in the 21st century. This research area will produce a distributed network of facilities, equipment, software, protocols, techniques, and personnel to develop applications and technology as well as to respond to bio-threats such as global warming and international pandemics. Sharing resources, software, training, personnel, and expertise will allow new centers to be created quickly in the face of national threats or economic needs. This effort will be inherently interdisciplinary and require computer scientists, material scientists, molecular biologists, government officials, legal expertise, and business leaders. It will include academic, government, and commercial partners at all scales. It will be a truly unique effort.This proposal is to organize a six-session virtual workshop series to develop a coherent set of Needs, Opportunities, and Challenges for Bio-Manufacturing and Bio-Readiness. This workshop series will result in a set of interdisciplinary reports that will be communicated to the National Science Foundation for consideration as a “Convergence Accelerator” Future Topic. The ideas generated during this workshop series will impact commercial as well as academic developments and research in bio-manufacturing, bio-security, and bio-readiness. Workforce development will require new training and create new personnel positions as a response. Models of collaboration between academic research and commercial business will be altered along with the legal and government agencies required to make these connections happen. If successful, this effort will change how the United States views its national manufacturing abilities as well as how it responds to potential global threats in the future. As a result, a well-defined, accessible, and continuously evolving set of tools, techniques, software, hardware, and personnel will be available to the United States and, as appropriate, globally.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.