IRES Track I: Student Research Experience in Germany to Resolve Complex Plant Traits

华盛顿州立大学（WSU）和德国的CEPLAS项目（植物科学卓越集群）打算培养一批精心挑选的、多样化的IRES学者，作为受过全球教育的研究生和本科生，在植物生物学研究方面发挥国际领导作用，强调解决可持续粮食生产的巨大挑战。学者们的国际研究经验将与cepas组织的丰富的文化和社会活动相结合。IRES项目还将纳入跨大西洋虚拟协作组件，不仅作为国际旅行受到限制时的应急计划，而且作为一个场所，让IRES学生在国际体验之前做好准备，并在体验之后保持与CEPLAS的科学家和学生的联系。拟议的IRES项目的成功将由CEPLAS为国际学生提供的现有优秀基础设施促进。通过欧洲和美国科学家在该项目中的直接合作，IRES学者将提高他们对具有更强环境适应性的光合作用和代谢的作物植物的能力，增强与有益微生物的相互作用，以及对病原体的防御。在德国的跨学科IRES研究经历也将培训学者发起、建立和培养科学合作，这将有利于他们的职业生涯，使他们在国内和国际研究职业中更有市场，并与农业跨国公司一起维持地区和国家经济。华盛顿州立大学和德国机构之间的NSF-IRES项目是两个机构之间的战略研究和教育合作伙伴关系的结果。cepas集群包括科隆大学和<s:1>塞尔多夫大学，以及马克斯普朗克植物育种研究所，这些都是世界级的研究中心。IRES的学者们将围绕着对复杂植物特性更深层次的理解进行研究项目。通过这项基础研究获得的知识具有很高的农艺相关性，可以帮助提高作物的产量和对有限自然资源的适应性，并为生物工程作物植物铺平道路，使其更多产，更能抵御环境挑战。因此，这些学者所接受的研究教育将广泛扩展社会对植物生物学的认识，以改善粮食安全，同时保护环境。来自华盛顿州立大学农业、人力和自然资源科学学院和文理学院的16名研究生和8名本科生组成的多元化队列，每年有8名学生，将在德国完成为期10周的研究体验，以英语为工作语言。在国际知名的CEPLAS研究中心，每位IRES学者将进行基础研究，这些研究将由16对德国/美国研究团队精心挑选。在CEPLAS植物科学研究中心的领导下，学者们的研究将解决对植物复杂生物过程和性状及其调控和遗传的全面理解的挑战。该项目由国际科学与工程办公室（OISE）资助。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。

Washington State University (WSU) and Germany’s CEPLAS program (Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences) intend to develop a cohort of carefully selected, diverse IRES scholars as globally educated graduate and undergraduate students for international leadership in Plant Biology research that emphasizes solutions to the huge challenge of sustainable food production. The scholars’ international research experience will be flanked by a rich cultural and social program organized by CEPLAS. The IRES project will also incorporate a transatlantic virtual collaborative component, not only as a contingency plan if international travel is restricted, but also as a venue to prepare the IRES students ahead of their international experience and sustain their connections with CEPLAS’ scientists and students after the experience. The success of the proposed IRES project will be fostered by the already existing excellent infrastructure offered by CEPLAS for international students. Through the direct cooperation between European and US scientists in this program, the IRES scholars will increase their competency about crop plants with more environmentally resilient photosynthesis and metabolism, enhanced interactions with beneficial microbes, and defenses against pathogens. The interdisciplinary IRES research experiences in Germany will also train the scholars on the initiation, establishment, and cultivation of scientific collaborations, which will benefit them in their professional careers, make them more marketable for research occupations both domestically and internationally, and sustain regional and national economies with multinational corporations in the agricultural industries. The NSF-IRES venture between WSU and the German Institutions within the CEPLAS program has resulted from a strategic research and education partnership between the two institutions. The CEPLAS cluster includes the Universities of Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, which are world-class research centers. The IRES scholars will work on research projects that revolve on a deeper understanding of complex plant traits. The knowledge gained by this fundamental research has high agronomic relevance that can help to improve the yield and adaptation of crop plants to limited natural resources and pave the way for bioengineering crop plants that are more productive and robust against environmental challenges. Hence, the research education received by these scholars will broadly expand society’s knowledge about plant biology towards improving food security while protecting the environment. A diverse cohort of 16 graduate and 8 undergraduate students with an eight-student cohort each year, from the WSU’s College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences and the College of Arts and Sciences, will complete a 10-week-long research experience in Germany, with English as the working language. At CEPLAS, an internationally acclaimed research center, each IRES scholar will conduct fundamental research, carefully selected by a pool of 16 German/US research pairs. Under the tutelage of leading CEPLAS Plant Science researchers, the scholars’ research will address the challenge of a comprehensive understanding of complex biological processes and traits in plants and their regulation and inheritance. This project is funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE).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.