Conference: Leveraging Innovations from Evolution Scoping Session

该奖项将支持NSF一个名为“利用进化创新”（LIFE）的新多部门工作的现场范围界定活动，该活动将重点关注进化创新和趋同进化的主题。不同的生物谱系已经进化出创新的复杂特征，以应对无数的环境挑战。现代生物学的一个主要目标是确定这些复杂性状背后的遗传机制，并了解导致复杂表型结果的进化轨迹。趋同过程的研究为探索复杂适应特征的起源、机制和宏观进化提供了无与伦比的机会。通过研究趋同创新，科学家们可以利用自然的重复实验来确定生活中常见问题的通用和独特的解决方案。生命范围界定会议旨在优先考虑这一跨学科领域的研究和培训，以加速发现和理解在整个生命树的谱系中响应不断变化的环境的重复创新。利用生命多样性来了解生物如何适应和解决反复出现的挑战的基础研究有可能为生物经济提供前所未有的进步（例如，创造/改进工业流程，开发新产品和服务，以及生产新能源）。因此，重要的是要培养一个由不同的研究人员组成的新生社区，他们能够自如地跨越系统学、分子和细胞生物学领域。本次范围界定会议将于2023年8月14日至16日在印第安纳州印第安纳波利斯举行，并将由KnowInnovation提供便利。LIFE范围界定会议的具体目标是：(1)汇集在包括进化生物学、系统学、发育学、分子生物学、生物化学和基因组学在内的多个领域的前沿专家，以弥合这些学科之间的文化和知识差距；(2)与生物和邻近生物群落合作，确定进化创新和趋同进化研究中的具体研究挑战和机遇；(3)阐明需求、策略和建议，使跨学科研究成为融合发展的创新，包括研究、基础设施和教育重点；(4)从一个庞大而多样化的群体中收集意见，探索利用进化创新支持生物经济的潜在研究领域。会议的主要有形产品将是由与会者编写的一系列简短白皮书，以及由组委会和与会者中选出的一个较小团队编写的综合报告。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 award will support an in-person scoping event for a new multi-division effort at NSF called Leveraging Innovations from Evolution (LIFE), which will focus on the topics of evolutionary innovation and convergent evolution. Diverse lineages of organisms have evolved innovative complex traits in response to myriad environmental challenges. A major goal in modern biology is to identify the genetic mechanisms that underlie these complex traits as well as to understand the evolutionary trajectories that result in complex phenotypic outcomes. The study of convergent processes provides unparalleled opportunities to explore the origins, mechanisms, and macroevolution of complex adaptive traits. By studying convergent innovations, scientists can leverage natural replicated experiments to identify both generalizable and unique solutions to life’s common problems. The LIFE Scoping Session aims to prioritize research and training in this cross-disciplinary area to speed discovery and understanding of repeated innovations in response to changing environments in lineages from across the tree of life. Basic research leveraging the diversity of life to understand how organisms have adapted and solved repeated challenges has the potential to provide unprecedented advances for the bioeconomy (e.g., create/improve industrial processes, develop new products and services, and produce new energy). It is therefore important to foster a nascent community of diverse researchers who are comfortable spanning the fields of systematics and molecular and cellular biology.This scoping session will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana, August 14-16, 2023, and will be facilitated by KnowInnovation. The specific objectives of the LIFE Scoping Session is to (1) bring together experts working at the forefront of multiple domains including evolutionary biology, systematics, development, molecular biology, biochemistry, and genomics to bridge the cultural and intellectual gaps among these disciplines; (2) engage the BIO and BIO-adjacent communities to identify specific research challenges and opportunities in the study of evolutionary innovation and convergent evolution; (3) articulate needs, strategies, and recommendations to enable transdisciplinary research into convergently-evolved innovations including research, infrastructure, and educational priorities; and (4) to jumpstart ideas and collect input from a large and diverse community to explore potential areas of research in leveraging evolutionary innovation to support the bioeconomy. The main tangible products from the session will be a series of short white papers developed by the participants, and a synthesis report developed by a smaller team selected from the organizing committee and the participants.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.