Collaborative Proposal: Fostering Cross-Disciplinary Relationships and Early-Career Development to Advance Interdisciplinary Research on Climate Change and Impacts

气候变化研究涉及物理、化学、地质和生物过程之间复杂的相互作用和反馈。如果我们要理解和缓解全球变化，还必须整合人类生态学、经济学、社会学、政治学和其他社会科学的见解。促进气候变化研究论文倡议(DISCCRS)促进了自然科学和社会科学的跨学科互动，并促进了博士毕业生的职业早期发展，他们从事跨学科、与社会相关的职业，致力于理解和缓解气候变化及其影响。从学生到专业的过渡是一个困难的过程，对于那些从事跨学科工作的人来说尤其如此。经过多年的学科专业化，对气候变化和影响等复杂环境系统感兴趣的毕业生需要迅速发展跨学科和机构边界的合作。DISCCRS帮助新的专业人士建立这样的联系--否则可能需要数年时间才能建立起这种联系。DISCCRS将提高新专业人员在具有社会意义的背景下进行跨学科研究和交流成果的能力。尽管难度很大，但此类研究往往会产生对社会具有巨大潜在利益的突破和见解，这些结果是不会通过严格的学科努力来确定的。该项目建立在2002-2004年DISCCRS试点计划的成功基础上，该计划促进了自然科学(物理学家、化学家、生物学家、数学家、大气、陆地或水生系统建模人员)之间的跨学科交流。拟议计划的目标是整合社会科学家，完成所有研究人员的整合，重点是提高我们缓解气候变化和影响的知识和能力。

Climate-change research involves complex interactions and feedbacks between physical, chemical, geological, and biological processes. Insights from human ecology, economics, sociology, political science, and other social sciences also must be integrated if we are to understand and mitigate global changes. The Dissertations Initiative for the Advancement of Climate Change Research, DISCCRS, fosters cross-disciplinary interactions across the natural and social sciences and facilitates early-career development for Ph.D. graduates embarking on interdisciplinary, socially relevant careers dedicated to understanding and mitigating climate change and impacts. The transition from student to professional one is a difficult one, and is particularly so for those engaged in interdisciplinary work. After years of disciplinary specialization, graduates interested in complex environmental systems such as climate change and impacts need to quickly develop collaborations across disciplinary and institutional boundaries. DISCCRS helps new professionals make such links--connections that might take years to develop otherwise. DISCCRS will improve the ability of new professionals to conduct interdisciplinary research and communicate results in a societally relevant context. Though difficult, such research often produces breakthroughs and insights with enormous potential benefits to society, results that would not be identified through strictly disciplinary efforts. This project builds on the success of a 2002-2004 pilot DISCCRS program, which fostered interdisciplinary communications across the natural sciences (physicists, chemists, biologists, mathematicians, modelers working with atmospheric, terrestrial or aquatic systems). The goal of the proposed program is to incorporate the social scientists to complete the integration of all researchers focused on improving our knowledge and ability to mitigate climate change and impacts.