NRT‐URoL: BRIDGES ‐ Building Resources for InterDisciplinary training in Genomic and Ecosystem Sciences

新的生态系统基因组学科学将生态系统如何运作的大范围科学与生物体的基因和基因组如何与环境相互作用的小规模科学结合在一起。生态系统基因组学承诺提供新的知识，以维持支持人类社会、与人类社会互动并被人类社会破坏的生物系统，例如向世界供应食物的农业生态系统，以及更广泛地说，在自然和管理的生态系统中塑造局部、区域和全球能量、水和碳循环的植物、微生物和昆虫。限制生态系统基因组学承诺实现的挑战是跨学科整合：从根本上说，这是一项教育和培训挑战。这项授予亚利桑那大学的国家科学基金会研究培训(NRT)奖将通过培训不同的科学家干部来推动生物尺度和科学学科的创新，以应对这一挑战。该项目将使科学和技术领域的包容性更加多样化，这是增强智力力量和培养跨学科能力的关键。该项目预计将培养一批智力和文化多元化的40名硕士和博士生，其中包括20名由NRT资助的受训者。受训者将从广泛的学科招募，包括基因组学、数据科学、生态系统和环境科学、水文学和大气科学、生态学以及植物、昆虫和微生物生物学。桥梁项目将实施一项培训计划，该计划将结合(1)跨学科课程和新的研究生辅修课程；(2)以社会科学为基础的新颖的“科学文化”培训(整合到自然科学培训计划中)，基于这样的见解，即真正的跨学科研究不仅是一项技术挑战，也是弥合学科之间文化差异的一种；(3)以团队为基础的研究经验，重点关注以下主题：增强美国西南部的作物抗旱性(与行业合作)；综合微生物组科学、数据分析和基因组学(与美国一家初创公司合作)；参与从沙漠到热带雨林的生物群(在UA的生物圈2号)；利用多组学技术(与世界领先的美国政府研究实验室合作)；以及在菲律宾(推进可持续水稻生产)和法国的全球挑战(在世界级的Ecotron设施用精确的生态系统实验测试进化生态学理论)；(4)教学和外展经验，包括在为少数群体服务的高中的教学和推广经验；(5)专业发展培训；(6)生态系统基因组学融合年度研究所，为NRT学员提供机会提出建议，分享基于团队的研究经验的结果，并参加关于包容性、教育学、科学传播和科学实践的专业发展和培训的互动讲习班。结果和成功的做法将广泛传播给教育界，因为该计划多样化并实施了纳入STEM的最佳实践，同时培养了生态系统基因组方面的新一代跨学科科学家。NSF研究培训(NRT)计划旨在鼓励为STEM研究生教育培训开发和实施大胆的、具有潜在变革性的新模式。该计划致力于通过创新的、基于证据的、与不断变化的劳动力和研究需求保持一致的综合实习生模式，在高度优先的跨学科或趋同研究领域对STEM研究生进行有效培训。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The new science of ecosystem genomics integrates the large-scale science of how ecosystems work with the small-scale science of how genes and genomes of organisms interact with their environments. Ecosystem genomics promises new knowledge to sustain the biological systems that support, interact with, and are disrupted by human society, such as the agroecosystems that supply food to the world -- and, more generally, the plants, microbes, and insects that shape local, regional, and global cycles of energy, water, and carbon in both natural and managed ecosystems. The challenge that limits fulfillment of the promise of ecosystem genomics is transdisciplinary integration: fundamentally, an education and training challenge. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to the University of Arizona will address this challenge by training a diverse cadre of scientists to catalyze innovation across biological scales and science disciplines. This project will diversify and improve inclusion in science and technology fields, key to enhancing intellectual strength and fostering transdisciplinarity. The project anticipates training an intellectually and culturally diverse group of 40 MS and PhD students, including 20 NRT-funded trainees. Trainees will be recruited from a broad range of disciplines, including genomics, data science, ecosystem and environmental science, hydrology and atmospheric sciences, ecology, and plant-, insect-, and microbial biology.The BRIDGES project will implement a training program that combines (1) an interdisciplinary curriculum and a new graduate minor; (2) novel, social science-based “Cultures of Science” training (integrated into the natural science training program), based on the insight that truly transdisciplinary research is not just a technical challenge, but also one of bridging cultural differences between disciplines; (3) team-based research experiences focusing on topics such as enhancing crop resistance to drought in the southwest US (with industry partnership); integrative microbiome science, data analytics, and genomics (with a US start-up company); engagement with biomes from desert to rainforest (at UA’s Biosphere 2); leveraging multi-omics technologies (with a world-leading U.S. government research laboratory); and global challenges in the Philippines (advancing sustainable rice production) and France (testing evolution-ecology theories with precision ecosystem experiments at the world-class Ecotron facility); (4) teaching and outreach experiences including at minority-serving high schools, (5) professional development training, and (6) an Annual Institute in Ecosystem Genomics Convergence, an opportunity for NRT trainees to advance proposals, share results of team-based research experiences, and participate in interactive workshops for professional development and training in inclusivity, pedagogy, science communication, and the practice of science. Results and successful practices will be broadly disseminated to the education community as the program diversifies and implements best practices for inclusion in STEM while fostering a new generation of transdisciplinary scientists in ecosystem genomics.The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.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.