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

NSF 发动机开发奖：为工厂系统创造气候适应机会 (NC)

• 批准号: 2315399
• 负责人: Gregory Goins
• 金额: $ 99.99万
• 依托单位: North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-03-01 至 2026-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2315399&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Engines; Development; Award; Creating

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.

该区域创新引擎发展奖旨在建立一个创新生态系统，将气候适应能力建立到北卡罗来纳州（NC）的农业社区中。预计该州服务不足的小型农场最容易受到气候变化的影响，因为它们通常位于更容易受到极端天气事件相关风险影响的地区。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实践来建立环境和经济上可持续的农场。CROPS项目通过激发创新走廊的全部潜力来应对社会，经济和种族不平等的根深蒂固的根源，以满足中小型农场的需求，特别是面对气候变化的服务不足的农民。总体目标是建立一个总体的CROPS生态系统，促进更公平和以需求为中心的知识共享、技术开发，并在农民、大学、工业和利益相关者社区之间建立激励机制，以降低采用的风险。在这个发展阶段，CROPS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增长和成熟。CROPS优先考虑我们多方面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。CROPS专注于服务不足的农民，财团研究合作伙伴和以教育为重点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准备好劳动力，同时解决气候，技术，经济，北卡罗来纳州农民面临的社会挑战。虽然北卡罗来纳州的主要大都市地区的研究三角公园（RTP）和皮埃蒙特三合会（PT）虽然这些措施促进了技术创新和经济机会，但对以农业为重点的北卡罗来纳州东部和中部服务不足的农村县的经济影响不足。这种奖励机制更好地定位RTP和PT地区，以培养和支持跨学科，多组织的研究人员，工业，企业和非营利合作伙伴团队，以及其他利益相关者与服务不足的农民，小企业主和土地所有者合作。这一引擎的牵头机构是北卡罗来纳州AT州立大学，这是全国最大的HBCU，它有着悠久的历史，与不同的农民群体合作，通过其推广网络提高他们的成功。核心CROPS合作伙伴还包括Alamance社区学院、杜克大学、东卡罗莱纳大学、北卡罗来纳生物技术中心、北卡罗来纳州立大学、北卡罗莱纳大学查佩尔山分校、RTI国际和维克森林大学。拟议中的42个县NC农业技术创新走廊动员创新研究，加速产品商业化，并培训维持生态系统所需的劳动力。 该开发奖将使团队能够参与区域协作规划过程，以准备未来的引擎来实现这些目标，调动伙伴关系和资源，推动北卡罗来纳州农业技术走廊沿着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，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的评估支持影响审查标准。