NSF Engines Development Award: Creating climate-resilient opportunities for plant systems (NC)

这一区域创新引擎发展奖旨在建立一个创新生态系统，将气候适应能力培养到北卡罗来纳州的农业社区。据预测，该州服务不足的小农场最容易受到气候变化的影响，因为它们往往位于更容易受到极端天气事件相关风险的地区。在小农场中建立气候适应能力需要一个充满活力的创新生态系统，在这个生态系统中，农民的需求被传达给研究人员，发现被转化为需求驱动的产品，农民被激励采用新技术和做法来建立环境和经济上可持续的农场。作物项目面临根深蒂固的社会、经济和种族不平等的根源，它点燃了创新走廊的全部潜力，以满足中小型农场的需求，特别是面对气候变化、服务不足的农民的需求。总体目标是发展一个总体作物生态系统，为农民、大学、行业和利益相关者社区提供更公平和以需求为中心的知识共享、技术开发和激励措施，以降低采用风险。在这个发展阶段，农作物建立了一个强大的组织基础设施，促进和维持这个生态系统的生长和成熟。农作物优先考虑我们多方面的利益相关者生态系统中的多样性--农民、研究人员、政策制定者、资助者和行业。农作物集中在服务不足的农民、财团研究合作伙伴和专注于教育的学术和推广机构之间的系统连接的关键节点，这些机构致力于为未来的劳动力做好准备，同时解决NC农民面临的气候、技术、经济和社会挑战。尽管研究三角园区(RTP)和皮埃蒙特三角(PT)等主要NC大都市区促进了技术创新和经济机会，但在服务不足的北卡罗来纳州东部和中部以农业为重点的农村县，经济影响不足。这一奖励机制更好地定位了RTP和PT地区，以培养和支持由研究人员、行业、创业和非营利合作伙伴以及其他利益相关者组成的跨学科、多组织团队，与服务不足的农民、小企业主和土地所有者合作。这一引擎的牵头机构是美国最大的HBCU北卡罗来纳农工大学，它与不同的农民群体合作，通过其扩展网络提高他们的成功有着悠久的历史。核心作物合作伙伴还包括阿拉曼斯社区学院、杜克大学、东卡罗来纳大学、北卡罗来纳生物技术中心、北卡罗来纳州立大学、北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校、RTI国际公司和维克森林大学。拟议的42个县的NC农业技术创新走廊动员创新研究，加快产品商业化，并培训维持生态系统所需的劳动力。该发展奖将使团队能够参与地区性的协作规划过程，为实现这些目标准备未来的引擎，动员合作伙伴和资源，推动北卡罗来纳州农业技术走廊沿线的农村农业经济的经济发展和繁荣。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。

This Regional Innovation Engines Development Award seeks to build an innovation ecosystem that builds climate resilience into farming communities in North Carolina (NC). Underserved and small farms in the state are predicted to be most vulnerable to the effects of climate change as they are often located in areas more exposed to risks associated with extreme weather events. Building climate resilience into small farms requires a vibrant innovation ecosystem in which farmers’ needs are communicated to researchers, discoveries are translated to demand-driven products, and farmers are incentivized to adopt new technologies and practices to build environmentally and economically sustainable farms. The CROPS project confronts entrenched sources of social, economic, and racial inequity by igniting the full potential of an innovation corridor to meet the needs of small- and mid-sized farms, especially underserved farmers, in the face of climate change. The overall goal is to develop an overarching CROPS ecosystem that seeds more equitable and needs-centric knowledge sharing, technology development, and creation of incentives to de-risk adoption among farmers, universities, industry, and stakeholder communities. In this Development phase, CROPS builds a strong organizational infrastructure that promotes and sustains this ecosystems’ growth and maturity. CROPS prioritizes diversity within our multifaceted stakeholder ecosystem – farmers, researchers, policy makers, funders, and industry. CROPS focuses on key nodes of systemic connectivity between underserved farmers, consortium research partners, and education-focused academic and extension agents who are dedicated to preparing a future ready workforce, while addressing climate, technological, economic, and societal challenges faced by NC farmers.Although the major NC metropolitan regions of the Research Triangle Park (RTP) and the Piedmont Triad (PT) have promoted technological innovation and economic opportunity, there has been insufficient economic impact in the underserved rural counties of Eastern and Central NC whose focus on agriculture. This award mechanism better positions the RTP and PT regions to cultivate and bolster interdisciplinary, multi-organizational teams of researchers, industry, entrepreneurial, and non-profit partners, and other stakeholders to work collaboratively with underserved farmers, small business owners, and landholders. The lead institution of this engine is North Carolina A&T State University, the largest HBCU in the nation, which has a long history of working with a diverse group of farmers to improve their success through its extension network. Core CROPS partners also include Alamance Community College, Duke University, East Carolina University, NC Biotechnology Center, NC State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, RTI International, and Wake Forest University. The proposed 42-county NC Agricultural Tech Innovation Corridor mobilizes innovative research, accelerates product commercialization, and trains the workforce needed to sustain the ecosystem. This Development Award will enable the team to engage in a regional, collaborative planning process to prepare a future Engine to meet these goals, mobilizing partnerships and resources to drive economic development and prosperity within NC’s rural agricultural economies along the NC Ag Tech Corridor.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.