Global Centers Track 1: Global Nitrogen Innovation Center for Clean Energy and Environment (NICCEE)

全球中心轨道 1：全球清洁能源与环境氮创新中心 (NICCEE)

• 批准号: 2330502
• 负责人: Xin Zhang
• 金额: $ 500万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-12-01 至 2028-11-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2330502&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Global; Centers; Track; Nitrogen; Innovation

The Global Nitrogen Innovation Center for Clean Energy and the Environment (NICCEE) aims to accelerate social and technological innovation for sustainable, climate-smart nitrogen management in agriculture-food-energy systems, including the urgent need to respond to the challenges and opportunities of “green ammonia.” Ammonia, primarily used in agriculture as a source of nitrogen for fertilizer, has long been produced using carbon-intensive methods, sometimes called "brown ammonia." In contrast, "green ammonia" is produced using water, air, and sunlight or electricity from renewable sources, leading to zero carbon emissions. Green ammonia also shows great promise as a carbon-free fuel and is set to replace at least half of the shipping fuel currently dominated by fossil fuels by 2050. Yet green ammonia presents risks alongside its opportunities; for example, increasing demand for ammonia as shipping fuel could increase fertilizer and food costs, and increased use as fertilizer could exacerbate nitrogen pollution. NICCEE’s research vision is that the pursuit of technologies for improved crop productivity, climate change mitigation, and clean energy needs to be accompanied by socioeconomic innovation and co-design with users to accelerate adoption, maximize social benefits, while minimizing unintended socio-environmental consequences. The center leverages expertise and resources across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom to advance this vision, and works in partnership with international organizations, private businesses, and local stakeholders. The center will support training and professional development for undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral researchers including internships with partners at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fertilizer Association, and The Nature Conservancy. The NICCEE team (1) uses cutting-edge data collection and analysis techniques to quantify and model the nitrogen flows in the agrifood and energy systems for each participating country and on a subnational spatial scale; (2) adopts a co-production, “living labs” framework to ensure the research team’s work and recommendations reflect end users’ views, concerns and experiences in pilot testing the distributed green ammonia production units on farm; and (3) addresses gaps in STEM education through a novel, transdisciplinary graduate education training program that will offer data scientists, engineers, and social innovators the technical and social skills necessary to lead future efforts at the nexus of the climate and nitrogen crises.  This award is funded by the Global Centers program, an innovative partnership with funding agencies in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, to jointly support use-inspired research addressing global challenges in climate change and clean energy. Partnerships with the Commonwealth Science and Innovation Research Organisation (CSIRO), Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) leverage resources to tackle challenges at a larger scale than would be possible for one funding agency alone. This Center is jointly supported by NSF, NSERC and UKRI.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.

全球清洁能源与环境氮肥创新中心（NICCEE）旨在加快社会和技术创新，以实现农业-粮食-能源系统中可持续的气候智能型氮肥管理，包括应对“绿色氨”挑战和机遇的迫切需要。氨主要用于农业，作为氮肥的来源，长期以来一直使用碳密集型方法生产，有时被称为“棕色氨”。相比之下，“绿色氨”是利用水、空气、阳光或可再生能源的电力生产的，从而实现零碳排放。绿色氨作为一种无碳燃料也显示出巨大的前景，到2050年，它将取代目前以化石燃料为主的至少一半的航运燃料。然而，绿色氨在带来机遇的同时也带来了风险；例如，对作为船舶燃料的氨的需求增加可能会增加肥料和食品的成本，而增加作为肥料的使用可能会加剧氮污染。NICCEE的研究愿景是，追求提高作物生产力、减缓气候变化和清洁能源的技术需要伴随着社会经济创新和与用户的共同设计，以加速采用，最大化社会效益，同时最大限度地减少意想不到的社会环境后果。该中心利用美国、加拿大和英国的专业知识和资源来推进这一愿景，并与国际组织、私营企业和当地利益相关者合作。该中心将支持本科生、研究生和博士后研究人员的培训和专业发展，包括与联合国粮食及农业组织、国际肥料协会和大自然保护协会的合作伙伴一起实习。NICCEE团队(1)使用尖端的数据收集和分析技术，在每个参与国和次国家空间尺度上量化和模拟农业粮食和能源系统中的氮流；(2)采用合作生产的“生活实验室”框架，确保研究团队的工作和建议反映了最终用户在农场试点测试分布式绿色氨生产装置的观点、关注点和经验；(3)通过一项新颖的跨学科研究生教育培训计划，解决STEM教育中的差距，该计划将为数据科学家、工程师和社会创新者提供必要的技术和社会技能，以领导未来在气候和氮危机关系方面的努力。 该奖项由全球中心项目资助，该项目与澳大利亚、加拿大和英国的资助机构建立了创新伙伴关系，共同支持以使用为灵感的研究，应对气候变化和清洁能源方面的全球挑战。与联邦科学与创新研究组织（CSIRO）、加拿大自然科学与工程研究委员会（NSERC）、加拿大社会科学与人文研究委员会（SSHRC）和英国研究与创新（UKRI）合作，利用资源应对比单独一个资助机构可能面临的更大规模的挑战。该中心由NSF、NSERC和UKRI共同支持。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。