IRES Track I: Collaborative Research: GYP-NEXTGEN: Empowering future scientists within an international consortium focused on gypsum plant communities

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Unusual soil types such as gypsum are home to a significant proportion of the world’s plant diversity, host unique and often rare biological communities of conservation concern, and serve as excellent systems to further our understanding of basic evolutionary and ecological processes. Through IRES Track I funding, the GYP-NEXTGEN project allows John Carroll University, New Mexico State University, and Oberlin College to support annual 6-student cohorts (two students per institution per year for three years) to conduct mentored research projects with partners in Spain at the Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, Universidad de Almería, and Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. The main objective is to advance our understanding of the unique plants and associated organisms that specialize on unusual gypsum soils, while simultaneously providing high-quality international research experiences to a diverse set of US undergraduates (18 students, total). The student participants will be drawn from three diverse institutions, including a Hispanic-serving institution and two undergraduate-focused institutions, one of which has many first-generation students. GYP-NEXTGEN builds on an existing US-Spanish collaboration, providing US students the opportunity to work alongside many of the worldwide experts in this research area. GYP-NEXTGEN will train 18 future scientists for a global workforce, developing their cross-cultural, interpersonal, and academic research skills in STEM fields. Each student will be closely mentored by US and Spanish scientists as they develop research proposals, conduct studies in the field and laboratory, and prepare their work for presentation and further publication. Students will advance their scientific communication skills through direct outreach to local schools in Spain to talk about their work, and in the US and Mexico through production of a bilingual podcast about their projects. The project also provides professional development opportunities for a diverse faculty team in the US and Spain. By leveraging and expanding upon GYPWORLD, GYP-NEXTGEN strengthens the links between the US and Spanish partner institutions, enables substantive advances in basic research and conservation of gypsum ecosystems, and creates meaningful opportunities for professional development for undergraduates, junior faculty, and senior faculty alike.Unusual soil types such as gypsum offer unique opportunities for understanding basic ecological and evolutionary processes. Organisms adapted to these soils are often inherently rare and of conservation concern. Despite their global presence in arid and semi-arid regions, gypsum ecosystems remain understudied compared to other harsh soil types, yet they host biodiverse endemic plant and biological soil crust communities on five continents. This project builds on an existing collaboration between US and Spanish partners, providing opportunities to mentor and train 18 students total from three US institutions (John Carroll University, New Mexico State University, and Oberlin College) at three Spanish institutions (Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, Universidad de Almería, and Universidad Rey Juan Carlos). By further linking US and Spanish partners, this project will advance fundamental research questions related to the physiology, ecology, evolution, and conservation of gypsum ecosystems. Our main objective is to advance our understanding of gypsum ecosystems while simultaneously providing high-quality international research experiences to a diverse set of US undergraduates. Importantly, Spain is the international hub of gypsum ecological and evolutionary research, and the Spanish PIs included in GYP-NEXTGEN represent most of the global leaders in gypsum ecology and evolution. Students will be mentored through an integrated campaign of activities before, during, and after their research experiences in Spain, to ensure consistent high-quality mentorship. GYP-NEXTGEN will train 18 future scientists for a global workforce, developing their cross-cultural, interpersonal, and academic research skills in STEM fields. Each student will be closely mentored by US and Spanish scientists as they develop research proposals, conduct studies in the field and laboratory, and prepare their work for presentation and further publication. Students will advance their scientific communication skills through direct outreach to local schools in Spain to talk about their work, and in the US and Mexico through production of a bilingual podcast about their projects. The project also provides professional development opportunities for a diverse faculty. By leveraging and expanding upon the existing European Union funded GYPWORLD project, GYP-NEXTGEN strengthens the links between the US and Spanish partner institutions, enables substantive advances in basic research and conservation of gypsum ecosystems, and creates meaningful opportunities for professional development for undergraduates, junior faculty, and senior faculty alike.This project is jointly funded by the 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.