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。如果我们要理解和减缓全球变化，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。促进气候变化研究的论文倡议（DISCCRS）促进自然科学和社会科学之间的跨学科互动，并促进博士毕业生从事跨学科，与社会相关的职业发展，致力于理解和减缓气候变化及其影响。从学生到专业人员的过渡是一个艰难的过程，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快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，这种联系可能需要数年时间才能建立起来。DISCCRS将提高新专业人员在社会相关背景下进行跨学科研究和交流结果的能力。尽管困难重重，但这类研究往往会产生突破和见解，为社会带来巨大的潜在利益，这些成果无法通过严格的学科努力来确定。该项目建立在2002-2004年DISCCRS试点项目的成功基础上，该项目促进了自然科学领域（物理学家、化学家、生物学家、数学家、研究大气、陆地或水生系统的建模者）的跨学科交流。该计划的目标是整合社会科学家，以完成所有研究人员的整合，专注于提高我们减缓气候变化及其影响的知识和能力。

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.