Collaborative Research: GCR: Developing Integrated Agroecological Renewable Energy Systems through Convergent Research

在美国各地部署可再生能源系统——预计将推动国家从对化石燃料的依赖向可再生能源的转变——带来了土地利用竞争、对土壤和水系统的影响以及对当地社区的影响等问题。该项目通过打造融合研究范式来推进科学前沿，该范式不仅深度整合了其他孤立领域的学科思维模式，而且还融入了土著社区的价值观、知识和优先事项，展示了在 STEM 中代表性不足的社区为融合研究做出贡献的潜力，从而解决社会最紧迫的问题。该项目的融合框架将土著知识和优先事项整合到一个有前途但新兴的领域，探索如何将风能和太阳能嵌入农业系统。参与学科包括工程学、美洲原住民研究、地理学和生物学。 这项融合研究通过与北美原住民社区的深入接触来解决粮食、能源和其他环境规划优先事项。该项目旨在为将太阳能和风能整合到农业和其他环境系统中的新兴研究做出贡献，重点关注综合农业生态可再生系统（IARES）的共同设计，以强调可以超越作物和能源生产或与作物和能源生产协同实现的多方面目标。为此，该项目 1) 展示了融合研究的潜力，其中涉及大量社区参与研究，以形成指导可再生能源转型的技术，从而更好地为科学研究中代表性不足的群体服务； 2) 强调社会文化、技术和环境系统的相互关联性； 3) 让原住民社区成为创建综合粮食-能源-水系统所需知识的共同创造者，从而建立有弹性的土壤系统并保护具有文化意义的生态系统服务，同时提供对农业光伏/农业风能新兴领域的见解，以及 4) 加深对融合研究如何融合原住民知识和科学知识的理解，以开发通往环境和社会可持续系统的道路。更广泛的影响包括： 1）为研究生和 PI 提供基于社区的融合研究的变革性培训机会； 2) 与历史上被边缘化的群体深入接触，其中包括土著社区研究人员，研究综合农业生态可再生系统的原理，并将他们的工作定位于塑造这一新兴子领域； 3）创建融合研究的实践社区，将土著社区研究人员与生物物理和社会科学家结合起来； 4) 创建“生活实验室”，包括原住民社区成员和地区领导人在内的公众可以参观，实时了解综合农业生态可再生系统和融合研究流程。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。

The deployment of renewable energy systems across landscapes in the U.S. - expected to advance the transition from national reliance on fossil fuels to renewable energy - brings with it questions of competing land uses, effects on soil and water systems, and implications for local communities. This project advances the frontiers of science by forging a convergent research paradigm that not only deeply integrates disciplinary modes of thinking from otherwise siloed fields, but also incorporates the values, knowledge, and priorities of Indigenous communities, demonstrating the potential of communities underrepresented in STEM to contribute to convergent research that can address society’s most urgent problems. The project's convergent framework integrates Indigenous knowledge and priorities into a promising but nascent field that explores how wind and solar power can be embedded into agricultural systems. Participating disciplines include engineering, Native American studies, geography, and biology. This convergence research addresses food, energy and other environmental planning priorities through deep engagement with Indigenous communities in North America. Positioned to contribute to the nascent body of research on the integration of solar and wind energy into agricultural and other environmental systems, this project focuses on the co-design of integrated agroecological renewable systems (IARES) to emphasize the multifaceted goals that may be achieved beyond or in synergy with crop and energy production. To this end, the project 1) Demonstrates the potential of convergent research that involves significant community participation in research to shape the technologies guiding a renewable energy transition such to better serve groups underrepresented in scientific research; 2) Highlights the interconnectedness of socio-cultural, technical, and environmental systems; 3) Incorporates Indigenous communities as co-producers of the knowledge necessary to create integrated food-energy-water systems that build resilient soil systems and protect culturally significant ecosystem services, while providing insight into the nascent fields of agrivoltaics/agriwind, and 4) Advances an understanding of how convergent research can blend Indigenous and scientific knowledge, to develop paths towards environmentally and socially sustainable systems. The broader impacts include: 1) Transformative training opportunities for graduate students and PIs in community-based convergent research; 2) Deep engagement with historically marginalized groups that includes Indigenous community researchers in research on the principles of integrated agroecological renewable systems and positions their work to shape this emerging subfield; 3) Creation of communities of practice emerging from convergent research that integrate Indigenous community researchers and biophysical and social scientists; 4) Creation of “living labs,” in which the public, including Indigenous community members and regional leaders, can visit to learn about integrated agroecological renewable systems and convergent research processes in real time.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.