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)打算培养一批经过精心挑选的多元化IRES学者，他们是受过全球教育的研究生和本科生，在植物生物学研究方面处于国际领先地位，强调解决可持续食品生产的巨大挑战。这些学者的国际研究经验将伴随着CEPLAS组织的丰富的文化和社会项目。IRES项目还将纳入跨大西洋虚拟协作部分，不仅作为国际旅行受到限制时的应急计划，而且还作为IRES学生在国际经验之前做好准备的场所，并在经历后保持他们与CEPLAS科学家和学生的联系。拟议的IRES项目的成功将受到CEPLAS为国际学生提供的现有优良基础设施的推动。通过欧洲和美国科学家在该项目中的直接合作，IRES学者将提高他们在作物方面的能力，这些作物具有更具环境弹性的光合作用和新陈代谢，增强与有益微生物的相互作用，并对病原体具有防御能力。德国IRES的跨学科研究经验还将对学者们进行有关发起、建立和培育科学合作的培训，这将使他们的专业生涯受益，使他们在国内和国际上更有市场，并与农业行业的跨国公司维持地区和国家经济。WSU与CEPLAS项目中的德国机构之间的NSF-IRES合资项目是两个机构之间战略研究和教育伙伴关系的结果。CEPLAS集群包括科隆大学和杜塞尔多夫大学，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学者将致力于围绕更深入地了解复杂植物特征的研究项目。通过这项基础研究获得的知识具有很高的农学相关性，有助于提高作物的产量和对有限自然资源的适应能力，并为生物工程作物提高产量和抵御环境挑战铺平道路。因此，这些学者所接受的研究教育将广泛地扩大社会对植物生物学的知识，从而在保护环境的同时提高粮食安全。来自华盛顿州立大学农业、人类和自然资源科学学院以及艺术与科学学院的16名研究生和8名本科生组成的不同队列，每年8名学生组成的队列，将在德国完成为期10周的研究体验，工作语言为英语。在享誉国际的研究中心CEPLAS，每一位IRES学者将进行基础研究，由16对德国/美国研究人员精心挑选。在CEPLAS领先的植物科学研究人员的指导下，这些学者的研究将解决全面了解植物中复杂的生物过程和特征及其调节和遗传的挑战。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。

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.