Cultural Change and Social Equity as Drivers for Convergent Research in Water and Material Circularity

不断增长的全球人口和有限的资源要求社会走向循环经济。 必须更有效地保护和再利用资源，将废物升级循环为有价值的产品和清洁能源。然而，过去为增加资源循环利用而对新技术进行的投资却未能充分考虑到对成功至关重要的文化视角以及经济和政策框架。需要新的方法，使工程师和科学家理解并将多个利益相关者的价值观纳入他们的工作，并面对非技术因素在推进循环中的作用。决策者在制定和应用认识到技术制约因素的科学方法时，还需要理解和纳入多个利益攸关方的价值观。这个NSF研究培训项目将通过培训硕士和博士生在不同的文化视角，现实世界的经验和学术研究的背景下循环使用水和材料来解决这些需求。该培训计划预计将为大约300名学生提供独特的培训机会，其中包括二十（20）名直接资助的学员和四十（40）名将参与该计划各个方面的学员。该培训计划将通过引导新技术、政策和经济手段、方法以及资源循环利用的实施战略来造福社会。学员将跨越工程，科学，公共事务，城市规划和环境政策领域。该项目将整合政策，工程和科学，结合课程，尖端跨学科研究和实习。此外，由驻场艺术家领导的社区互动旨在增强学员的身份和积极社会影响的能力。学员将参加几项重要活动。首先是以循环为系统的队列为重点的课程，以及培训：培养必要的领导力和专业技能，促进跨学科合作，并促进循环的参与性奖学金。第二个组成部分包括跨学科的研究生研究经验，重点是为目前不可持续的水，能源和材料使用创造循环解决方案。第三个方面包括从研究项目和/或社区参与建立的外部实习，并直接纳入受训者的论文或学位论文。最后，这个实习的第四个也是新颖的组成部分将采取与社区的结构化参与的形式，整个计划由嵌入式艺术家领导。这些互动将导致自我反思，协作和社会参与的创造性模式的培养，沿着每个受训者的影响身份的探索，定义为一个人的工作带来积极的社会影响的潜力，通过个人的实践和兴趣的个人，社区和专业方面。这些学员代表了新一代的可持续发展和循环专业人士，将成为研究人员，行业和社区之间的联系人。这种综合研究和教育培训将导致创建一个新的证书计划，并增加与社区和行业的互动。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，新的潜在变革模式。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相一致的综合培训模式，在高优先级的跨学科或融合研究领域对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价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A growing global population and limited resources require society to move towards a circular economy. Resources must be conserved and reused more effectively, with wastes upcycled into products of value and clean energy. Past investments in new technologies to increase the circular use of resources have fallen short, however, failing to consider cultural perspectives and economic and policy frameworks that are critical to success. New approaches are needed in which engineers and scientists understand and incorporate multiple stakeholder values into their work and confront the role of non-technological factors in advancing circularity. Policymakers also need to understand and incorporate multiple stakeholder values as they develop and then apply science-based approaches that recognize technological constraints. This NSF Research Traineeship project will address these needs by training master’s and doctoral students in the circular use of water and materials in the context of different cultural perspectives, real-world experiences, and academic research. The traineeship anticipates providing unique training opportunities to approximately 300 students, including twenty (20) directly funded trainees and forty (40) trainees that will participate in all aspects of the program with funding from other sources. This training program will benefit society by leading to new technologies, policy and economic instruments, methods, and implementation strategies for the circular use of resources. Trainees will span fields of engineering, science, public affairs, urban planning, and environmental policy.This project will integrate policy, engineering, and science with a combination of coursework, cutting-edge interdisciplinary research, and internships. Additionally, community interactions led by an Artist-in-Residence are designed to enhance the trainees’ identity and capacity for positive societal impact. Trainees will participate in several key activities. First is cohort-focused coursework on circularity as a system, as well training to: cultivate essential leadership and professional skills, foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and promote engaged scholarship on circularity. A second component consists of interdisciplinary graduate research experiences focused on creating circular solutions to currently unsustainable water, energy, and material use. A third aspect is comprised of external internships that build from research projects and/or community engagement and are incorporated directly into the trainee’s thesis or dissertation. Finally, a fourth and novel component of this traineeship will take the form of structured engagements with the community throughout the program led by an embedded Artist-in-Residence. These interactions will result in the cultivation of creative models of self-reflection, collaboration, and social engagement, along with the exploration of each trainee’s impact identity, defined as the potential of one’s work to bring about positive societal impact as seen through personal, communal, and professional aspects of an individual’s practice and interests. These trainees represent a new generation of sustainability and circularity professionals that will serve as connectors between researchers, industry, and communities. This integrated research and education traineeship will result in the creation of a new certificate program and increased interactions with the community and industries. 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.