NSF Engines Development Award: Building a climate-smart bioeconomy in upstate New York (NY)

该区域创新引擎发展奖的重点是将纽约州北部从依赖化石燃料、经济衰退的地区转变为可持续的气候智能型生物经济。目前纽约州的立法环境为发展气候智能型生物经济创造了一个及时的机会。利用《纽约州气候法案》等政策，该项目将扩大纽约州北部的生物经济，该地区以农村为主，有几个城市中心，30多年来经济增长有限。该项目将为全球可持续性挑战开发技术解决方案，并培养一支随时准备实施解决方案的劳动力队伍。气候智慧型生物经济将通过可持续的生物质管理来培育有弹性的供应链，发展区域经济，通过减少化石碳的使用来提高国家竞争力和安全，并支持州和国家创建净零碳经济的目标。气候智慧型生物经济将成为全国农村地区建立合作伙伴和利益相关者生态系统的典范，通过可持续地利用当地可获得的生物质和人才资源，实现经济转型。康奈尔大学和纽约州立大学环境科学与林业学院等合作机构的研究、教育和创业专业知识，以及康奈尔合作推广网络、康奈尔区域经济发展中心、最近成立的国家科学基金会I-Corps中心，以及创新者、行业、企业家、就业创造者、政策制定者和社区成员之间的战略伙伴关系，将推动使用启发研究来实现这一目标。该项目将通过在三个目标领域支持跨学科、融合的、启发用途的研究，发展可持续的气候智能型生物经济：(1)可持续农业食品和林业系统；(2)有利于气候的技术和基于自然的创新；(3)生物基工业过程和产品。该奖项支持两项活动：实地考察区域产业（如农用工业生产者、机器人制造商、林业服务、培训项目）和与利益相关者（如研究人员、行业领导者、投资者、政府、教育工作者和经济开发商）的研讨会。这些活动的目标是确定推动气候智慧型生物经济的关键创新领域，培养准备实施可持续气候智慧型解决方案的劳动力的培训和教育需求，企业家（特别是那些代表性不足的群体）面临的挑战，以及协同政策进展如何支持气候智慧型生物经济。该区域创新引擎发展奖将使团队能够通过与该地区的利益相关者合作，确定关键的研究、培训和创新基础设施需求，以设计包容性生态系统，实现气候智能型生物经济的可持续增长，从而为引擎做好准备。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。

This Regional Innovation Engines Development Award is focused on transitioning upstate New York from a fossil-fuel-dependent, economically declining region to a sustainable climate-smart bioeconomy. The current New York State legislative environment creates a timely opportunity to develop a climate-smart bioeconomy. Leveraging policies like the New York State Climate Act, the project will expand the bioeconomy in Upstate NY, a predominantly rural region with several urban centers of limited economic growth for over 30 years. The project will develop technological solutions to global sustainability challenges and a workforce ready to implement solutions. The climate-smart bioeconomy will foster a resilient supply chain via sustainable biomass management, grow the regional economy, address national competitiveness and security by reducing fossil carbon use, and support the state and nation's goal of creating a net-zero carbon economy. The climate-smart bioeconomy will become a model for how rural regions nationwide can build an ecosystem of partners and stakeholders to transform their economy by sustainably using locally available biomass and talent resources. The research, education, and entrepreneurial expertise of partner institutions - Cornell University and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry - leveraged alongside the Cornell Cooperative Extension network, Cornell's Center for Regional Economic Advancement, the recently established NSF I-Corps Hub, and strategic partnerships among innovators, industry, entrepreneurs, job creators, policymakers, and community members, will drive use-inspired research to realize this goal.The project will develop a sustainable climate-smart bioeconomy by supporting interdisciplinary, convergent, use-inspired research across three target Areas: (1) sustainable agri-food and forestry systems; (2) climate beneficial technology and nature-based innovation; (3) bio-based industrial processes and products. This award supports two activities: site visits to regional industries (e.g., agro-industrial producers, robotics manufacturers, forestry services, training programs) and workshops with stakeholders (e.g., researchers, industry leaders, investors, government, educators, and economic developers). The goals of these activities are to identify areas of critical innovation to advance the Climate Smart Bioeconomy, training, and educational needs to grow a workforce prepared to implement sustainable climate-smart solutions, challenges faced by entrepreneurs, in particular those from underrepresented groups, and how synergistic policy advances can support the climate-smart bioeconomy. This Regional Innovation Engines Development Award will enable the team to prepare for an Engine by engaging stakeholders across the region to identify critical research, training, and innovation infrastructure needs to design an inclusive ecosystem to enable sustainable growth of the climate-smart bioeconomy.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.