The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC): Advancing socio-environmental research through computational, theoretical, and interdisciplinary science

公平、道德和可持续地利用地球有限的资源需要了解人类行为如何影响和应对环境。国家社会环境综合中心（SESYNC）促进自然科学和社会科学的新研究，以实现这种理解，并提供解决全球挑战人类社会的复杂问题所需的知识。该中心将开展教育和培训活动，在所有职业阶段建立解决复杂问题的能力，并培养新一代善于协作和沟通的研究人员。这些活动将强调社会环境综合与真实的世界问题的相关性，办法是让决策者、政府机构和非政府机构参与所有活动，确保这些知识使用者获得作出正确决定所需的信息。新的投资将培养未来的思想领袖、教育工作者和决策者。能力建设扩大到使得不到充分服务的群体更多地参与解决社会问题。与历史上的黑人学院和大学的伙伴关系，再加上他们的本科生和教师的积极辅导，将从事这些社区的环境挑战，具有重大的文化，经济和社会影响。中心的活动将建立计算素养，并提供公共可用的分析工具，这将推动计算培训远远超出SESYNC的参与者。通过一系列新活动，SESYNC将建设为紧迫的社会挑战寻找解决方案的能力。SESYNC已经确立了自己作为一个先驱，在综合，计算密集型，跨学科的研究，定义了一个新的生物学为21世纪世纪。其未来的方法依赖于经过5年实验和测试开发的经过严格审查和确立的合成方法。活动的重点是建立一个社会环境综合实践社区。与历史上的黑人学院和大学的新伙伴关系将建立研讨会，合作综合项目和同行师生网络，以促进思想交流，提供智力和道德支持，并促进获得专业发展和研究机会。一个新的博士后计划侧重于“沉浸”，以加速综合，跨学科研究项目的发展。研究员将首先在自己的学科中启动一个项目，然后通过讲座和研讨会迅速沉浸在相关学科的理论和实践中。研究生将指导他们自己的综合工作组，以培养他们的职业生涯早期的协作和沟通技能。跟踪参与者的各种努力将使他们在离开SESYNC后继续参与社会环境综合。一个新的网络基础设施计划，数据激励合成，将使用便利的数据发现和团队科学研讨会，以制定社会自然科学界面的研究问题。与乔治敦大学环境倡议的新合作将加强SESYNC的“可操作”奖学金组合，并进一步扩大社会环境综合的参与。这两个机构将共同支持四名博士后研究员开展科学与政策联系的综合研究。将通过形成性和总结性评估，对照既定目标和里程碑来衡量所有活动的成功与否。

Equitable, ethical, and sustainable uses of the Earth's finite resources require an understanding of how human behaviors affect and respond to the environment. The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) facilitates novel research across the natural and social sciences to achieve this understanding and to provide the knowledge needed to address complex problems challenging human societies globally. The Center will develop education and training activities to build capacity across all career stages to solve complex problems and to develop a new generation of researchers skilled in collaboration and communication. These activities will emphasize the relevance of socio-environmental synthesis to real world problems by including policy-makers, governmental agencies, and non-governmental agencies in all activities, ensuring that these knowledge users obtain the information they need to make sound decisions. New investments will train thought leaders, educators, and decision-makers of the future. Building capacity extends to increased involvement of under-served groups in solving societal problems. Partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, coupled with active mentoring of their undergraduates and faculty, will engage these communities in environmental challenges that have significant cultural, economic, and social implications. Center activities will build computational literacy and provide publicly-available analytical tools that will advance computational training far beyond SESYNC's participants. Through a suite of new activities, SESYNC will build capacity to find solutions to pressing societal challenges. SESYNC has established itself as a pioneer in the integrative, computationally intensive, and trans-disciplinary research that defines a new biology for the 21st century. Its approach for the future relies on a firmly vetted and established approach to synthesis developed over 5 years of experiment and testing. Activities focus on developing a community of practice for socio-environmental synthesis. New partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities will establish workshops, collaborative synthesis projects, and a peer faculty-student network to foster exchange of ideas, provide intellectual and moral support, and facilitate access to professional development and research opportunities. A new postdoctoral program focuses on 'immersion' to accelerate development of integrated, inter-disciplinary research projects. Fellows will first initiate a project in their own discipline and then be quickly immersed, through lectures and workshops, in the theory and practice of related disciplines. Graduate students will direct their own synthesis working groups to develop skills in collaboration and communication early in their careers. Diverse efforts to track participants will sustain their involvement in socio-environmental synthesis after leaving SESYNC. A new cyberinfrastructure program, Data to Motivate Synthesis, will use facilitated data discovery and team science workshops to formulate research questions at the interface of social-natural sciences. A new collaboration with Georgetown University's Environmental Initiative will strengthen SESYNC's 'actionable' scholarship portfolio and further broaden participation in socio-environmental synthesis. The two institutions will co-support four postdoctoral fellows to conduct synthesis research on science-policy links. The success of all activities will be measured against established goals and milestones through formative and summative assessment.