Cultural Change and Social Equity as Drivers for Convergent Research in Water and Material Circularity

不断增长的全球人口和有限的资源要求社会走向循环经济。必须更有效地节约和重新利用资源，将废物升级为有价值的产品和清洁能源。然而，过去对增加资源循环利用的新技术的投资不足，没有考虑到对成功至关重要的文化视角以及经济和政策框架。需要新的方法，让工程师和科学家了解并将多个利益攸关方的价值观纳入他们的工作，并面对非技术因素在推进循环性方面的作用。政策制定者还需要在制定和应用承认技术限制的基于科学的方法时理解和纳入多个利益攸关方的价值观。这个NSF研究培训项目将通过培训硕士和博士生在不同文化视角、现实世界经验和学术研究的背景下循环使用水和材料来满足这些需求。该培训项目预计将为大约300名学生提供独特的培训机会，其中包括二十(20)名直接资助的学员和四十(40)名将利用其他来源的资金参与该计划所有方面的学员。这一培训计划将通过引导资源循环利用的新技术、政策和经济手段、方法和实施战略来造福社会。学员将涵盖工程、科学、公共事务、城市规划和环境政策等领域。这个项目将把政策、工程和科学与课程作业、前沿跨学科研究和实习相结合。此外，由常驻艺术家领导的社区互动旨在增强受训者的认同感和产生积极社会影响的能力。受训者将参加几项关键活动。首先是将循环作为一个系统进行的以群体为重点的课程工作，以及培训：培养基本的领导力和专业技能，促进跨学科合作，并促进关于循环的学术参与。第二部分包括跨学科的研究生研究经验，重点是为目前不可持续的水、能源和材料使用创造循环解决方案。第三个方面是由外部实习组成，这些实习建立在研究项目和/或社区参与的基础上，并直接纳入学员的论文或论文。最后，这一培训的第四个和新颖的组成部分将在整个项目中采取与社区有组织的接触的形式，由嵌入的常驻艺术家领导。这些互动将导致培养自我反思、合作和社会参与的创造性模式，以及探索每个受训者的影响力认同，其定义是通过个人实践和兴趣的个人、公共和专业方面的个人工作带来积极社会影响的潜力。这些受训人员代表了新一代可持续发展和循环专业人士，他们将成为研究人员、行业和社区之间的连接者。这种综合的研究和教育培训将导致创建一个新的证书计划，并增加与社区和行业的互动。NSF研究培训(NRT)计划旨在鼓励开发和实施大胆的、具有潜在变革意义的STEM研究生教育培训模式。该计划致力于通过创新的、基于证据的、与不断变化的劳动力和研究需求保持一致的综合实习生模式，在高度优先的跨学科或趋同研究领域对STEM研究生进行有效培训。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。

A growing global population and limited resources require society to move towards a circular economy. Resources must be conserved and reused more effectively, with wastes upcycled into products of value and clean energy. Past investments in new technologies to increase the circular use of resources have fallen short, however, failing to consider cultural perspectives and economic and policy frameworks that are critical to success. New approaches are needed in which engineers and scientists understand and incorporate multiple stakeholder values into their work and confront the role of non-technological factors in advancing circularity. Policymakers also need to understand and incorporate multiple stakeholder values as they develop and then apply science-based approaches that recognize technological constraints. This NSF Research Traineeship project will address these needs by training master’s and doctoral students in the circular use of water and materials in the context of different cultural perspectives, real-world experiences, and academic research. The traineeship anticipates providing unique training opportunities to approximately 300 students, including twenty (20) directly funded trainees and forty (40) trainees that will participate in all aspects of the program with funding from other sources. This training program will benefit society by leading to new technologies, policy and economic instruments, methods, and implementation strategies for the circular use of resources. Trainees will span fields of engineering, science, public affairs, urban planning, and environmental policy.This project will integrate policy, engineering, and science with a combination of coursework, cutting-edge interdisciplinary research, and internships. Additionally, community interactions led by an Artist-in-Residence are designed to enhance the trainees’ identity and capacity for positive societal impact. Trainees will participate in several key activities. First is cohort-focused coursework on circularity as a system, as well training to: cultivate essential leadership and professional skills, foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and promote engaged scholarship on circularity. A second component consists of interdisciplinary graduate research experiences focused on creating circular solutions to currently unsustainable water, energy, and material use. A third aspect is comprised of external internships that build from research projects and/or community engagement and are incorporated directly into the trainee’s thesis or dissertation. Finally, a fourth and novel component of this traineeship will take the form of structured engagements with the community throughout the program led by an embedded Artist-in-Residence. These interactions will result in the cultivation of creative models of self-reflection, collaboration, and social engagement, along with the exploration of each trainee’s impact identity, defined as the potential of one’s work to bring about positive societal impact as seen through personal, communal, and professional aspects of an individual’s practice and interests. These trainees represent a new generation of sustainability and circularity professionals that will serve as connectors between researchers, industry, and communities. This integrated research and education traineeship will result in the creation of a new certificate program and increased interactions with the community and industries. 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.