NSF Engines Development Award: Advancing equitable access to food and health techologies in the Delta (AR, LA, MS)

NSF引擎开发奖将为密西西比河三角洲下游未来的NSF引擎奠定基础，以培养一支由不同技术人员、从业人员、研究人员和企业家组成的地区劳动力队伍；启动新公司的创建和由此产生的相关经济机会；将在学术环境和私营部门倡议中开发的发现和新技术转化为市场；并在整个地区实现更好、更公平的健康和经济成果，该地区的差异由来已久，而且在全国各地的低收入社区和有色人种社区中不成比例地共享。由阿肯色州健康改善中心牵头，该项目包括不同地区的利益相关者，代表10个学术研究机构、7个营利性公司、多个州政府机构、17个非营利性组织和两个少数族裔拥有的社区发展金融机构。这项规划工作将建立在该地区之前在人工智能、生物技术、智能农业、生物医学信息学和数据分析方面的基础和应用研究方面的联邦投资的基础上。它将建立跨州的战略伙伴关系，共同创建一个区域生态系统，支持改善所有居民的健康和经济成果，其中许多人处于社会的地理、政治和经济边缘。最终的NSF引擎的愿景是一个创新的解决方案孵化器，为拟议区域及其他地区的居民实现公平的健康和经济结果。根据记录在案的该地区人口对食品和医疗保健的基本需求，结合新冠肺炎大流行带来的挑战和成功应对措施，现在是时候研究和开发以使用为启发的创新和创业农村解决方案，这些解决方案不仅将针对目标地区，而且还将为该国其他农村地区提供潜在的解决方案。最终的引擎将围绕健康食品、技术辅助诊断、慢性病监测和预防和治疗以及非传统诊断和药物疗法的新提供模式，重点放在改善服务不足人口的卫生保健的创新、进步和基础设施上。成功地将这些创新转化为实践将需要劳动力发展和为农村社区量身定做的创业成功的新融资模式。生态系统的成功发展将需要有重点的努力，以克服某些社区的历史边缘化和歧视，并为可持续增长开发当地的智力资产。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This NSF Engines Development Award will lay the groundwork for a future NSF Engine in the lower Mississippi River Delta to develop a regional workforce of diverse technicians, practitioners, researchers, and entrepreneurs; initiate the creation of new companies and associated economic opportunities that emanate from them; translate discoveries and new technologies developed in and across academic environments and private sector initiatives to the market; and achieve better and more equitable health and economic outcomes across a region with disparities that are longstanding and disproportionately shared by low-income communities and communities of color across the nation. Led by the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, this project includes diverse regional stakeholders representing ten academic research institutions, seven for-profit companies, various state government agencies, seventeen nonprofits, and two minority-owned community development finance institutions. This planning effort will build upon previous federal investments in the region in basic and applied research in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, smart agriculture, biomedical informatics, and data analytics. It will build strategic partnerships across state lines co-creating a regional ecosystem that supports improved health and economic outcomes for all residents, many of whom are on society's geographic, political, and economic fringes. The vision for the eventual NSF Engine is an innovative incubator of novel solutions to achieve equitable health and economic outcomes for the residents of the proposed region and beyond. Based upon the documented basic needs of the region’s population for food and health care, combined with the challenges and successful responses from the COVID-19 pandemic, the opportunity is ripe for use-inspired research and development of innovative and entrepreneurial rural solutions that will not only address the targeted region but also offer potential solutions for other rural areas of the nation. The eventual Engine will revolve around new delivery models for healthy food, technology-assisted diagnosis, monitoring and prevention and treatment for chronic diseases, and non-traditional diagnostic and pharmacologic therapeutics, focusing on innovations, advancements, and infrastructures that improve health care for under-served populations. Successful translation of these innovations into practice will require workforce development and new financing models for entrepreneurial success tailored for rural communities. Successful development of the ecosystem will require focused efforts to overcome historical marginalization and discrimination of certain communities and the development of local intellectual assets for sustainable growth.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.