Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Food Resiliency through Engineered Supply Chains (FRESCH)

工程研究中心规划奖助金竞赛是作为ERC计划的试点征集活动进行的。计划拨款不是全面环境与合作竞赛的一部分，而是为了在团队之间建立能力，为集中的中央规模的工程研究制定计划。当代食品供应链针对大容量、低成本和全球覆盖进行了优化-但仍然失败：食品沙漠和食源性疾病依然存在；小生产者面临参与障碍；自然灾害(包括新冠肺炎大流行)扰乱了生产和交付。工程师传统上是系统地、顺序地和递增地处理问题。然而，食品系统的故障不太容易通过这些方法来管理，因为食品系统已经根深蒂固地融入了社会和文化元素(口味、历史、身份和价值观)，这些元素无视技术优化和阻止规则。Fresch ERC的目标社会影响是通过避免或减轻干扰以及通过利用机会扩大食品种类和盈利能力来改善国家的健康和繁荣。ERC目标的一个重要方面是将思维从线性的“食品供应链”转变为灵活、有弹性的“食品网络”。粮食网络的复原力意味着，无论发生什么破坏，都会产生较小的负面影响或较大的积极影响。对食品工业内部适应能力的投资将平衡普遍存在的“更精简”食品系统的驱动力，这些系统往往很脆弱，与可持续发展目标不符，如增加食品生产者的收入和确保所有人都有体面的工作。Fresch ERC将开发技术，为食品系统的所有节点服务；减少粮食不安全和浪费；将系统性能的标准扩大到技术效率之外；并改革工业、农业和生物系统工程的教育和实践，将复原力的概念纳入其中。复原力不仅仅是简单的健壮性或反弹能力--它包括优雅的可扩展性和持续的适应性，以应对无法预见的关键情况或趋势。规划赠款将提供机制和资源，以建立一个环境研究中心，以解决小规模食品网络中的食品安全问题，并开发食品网络挑战模拟，以培训学生和利益相关者关于食品系统相互关联的知识。我们理性的规划方法植根于社区资本框架。这种系统方法考虑了所有相关的人力资本、社会资本、自然资本、金融资本、建筑资本、文化资本和政治资本，并对它们进行整体部署，以最大限度地影响社区发展。结合复原力思维和社区资本是一种确定优先事项和选择有影响力的工程研究和开发项目的融合方法。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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。

The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research.Contemporary food supply chains are optimized for high volume, low cost, and global reach—but continue to fail: food deserts and food-borne illness persist; small producers face barriers to participation; and natural disasters (including the COVID-19 pandemic) disrupt production and deliveries. Engineers traditionally approach problems systematically, sequentially, and incrementally. Breakdowns in food systems, however, are less manageable by these methods because food systems have engrained social and cultural elements (tastes, histories, identities, and values) which defy technical optimization and preclude stopping rules. The targeted societal impact of the FRESCH ERC is to improve the nation’s health and prosperity by both avoiding or mitigating disruptions and by exploiting opportunities to expand food variety and profitability. An important aspect of the ERC’s target goals is to shift thinking from linear “food supply chains” to flexible and resilient “food networks.” Resilience within food networks means that whatever disruptions do occur will have smaller negative impacts or greater positive ones. Investment in adaptive capacity within the food industry will balance the pervasive drive for “leaner” food systems, which are often brittle and not aligned with sustainable development goals, such as increasing the incomes of food producers and ensuring decent work for all.The FRESCH ERC will develop technology to serve all nodes of food systems; reduce food insecurity and waste; expand the criteria for system performance beyond technical efficiency; and transform education and practice in industrial, agricultural, and biosystems engineering to include concepts of resilience. Resilience is more than simple robustness or the ability to rebound—it includes graceful extendibility and sustained adaptability in response to critical situations or trends that cannot be foreseen. The planning grant will provide mechanisms and resources to charter an ERC to address issues of food safety in small-scale food networks and develop a food network challenge simulation to train students and stakeholders about the interconnectedness of food systems. Our intellectual approach to planning is grounded in the Community Capitals Framework. This systems approach considers all relevant human, social, natural, financial, built, cultural, and political capitals, and deploys them holistically to greatest impact for community development. Combining resilience thinking and community capitals is a convergent approach to define priorities and select impactful engineering research and development projects.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.