NSF Sustainability Linkages and EPSCoR

1. NSF Sustainability Linkages and EPSCoR Dr. Tim Killeen NSF EPSCoRProject Directors’ and Project Administrators’ Meeting May 2012

2. Expanding EPSCoR Connections to NSF Priorities • Many EPSCOR Programs focus on Sustainability • EPSCOR programs can harness this energy to: • Address problems of societal relevance • Respond to interesting questions at interfaces of disciplines • Address multi-jurisdictional issues (e.g., water) • Educate the next generation of scientists, engineers, educators

3. EPSCOR – Avenues to Explore • Building networks across institutions • Bringing researchers together • Transcending state lines NSF sustainability programs may provide ideas, models, inspiration. Examples covered – SEES, IGERT, PIRE

4. Meeting Sustainability Challenges… Requires multi-faceted approaches and research at the nexus of societal needs and behavior, environmental impact, and economic demands

5. Science engineering and education for sustainability (SEES)

6. NSF’s Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (SEES) Portfolio Mission: to advance science, engineering, and education to inform the societal actions needed for environmental and economic sustainability and sustainable human well-being

7. SEES Overview • Established in Fiscal Year 2010 • Portfolio of existing and new programs • All NSF Directorates and Offices involved • Partnerships are key

8. SEES Goals • Interdisciplinaryresearch and education…towards global sustainability • Link projects and partners and add new participants to sustainability endeavors • Develop the workforce…to address…sustainability.

9. SEES Characteristics • Systems Thinking holistic approaches that link human, built and natural systems, and reach across disciplines • Partnerships & Networks connect intellectually and spatially disparate communities, institutions and organizations. • Workforce & Education development and education of new researchers and students on critical aspects and issues of sustainability.

10. SEES Themes • Natural Systems • Human Systems • Built Systems • Energy and Materials • Adaptation and Resilience

11. SEES Programs: FY10 –11 • Dimensions of Biodiversity • NSF China co-funder • Water Sustainability and Climate • USDA co-funder • Ocean Acidification • Regional and Decadal Earth System Modeling • Dept. of Energy and USDA co-funders • Climate Change Education • Research Coordination Networks • Dynamics of Coupled Natural-Human systems • ~ $158M 2-year investment

12. FY 2012 SEES Activities • Sustainability Research Networks • Sustainable Energy Pathways • SEES Fellows • Exclusive SEES focus in Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) • Arctic regions (“ArcSEES” program) • Estimated $157M NSF investment

13. Future SEES Focus Areas • Hazards, Vulnerability, and Resilience • Coastal Zone Systems • Information Science and Engineering • Chemistry, Materials, Engineering • FY13 Budget Request: $202.5M

14. NSF networks, workforce development, education, and water sustainability examples

15. Research Coordination Networks • Sustainability science, engineering, and education as an integrative systems approach • Investigators coordinate across disciplinary, organizational, geographical boundaries • Nurtures a open communications and a sense of community among early career scientists • Encourages diverse stakeholder participation • FY 11 -- 11 awards, ~$8M total. • Water Diplomacy • Urban Sustainability • Women – Developing Countries

16. Marcellus Shale Research Network • Assembling data from watershed associations, governments, and scientists to further knowledge on effect of hydrofracking on groundwater • Database will be used to establish background concentrations of chemicals, and to assess changes. • Results can help community groups evaluate potential public health risks.

17. Colorado River Delta Research Coordination Network • Natural scientists, social scientists and legal scholars coordinating interdisciplinary, inter-institutional, and international research on the Colorado River Delta. • Research activities focus on how natural and human-caused variation in water supply affects the biotas and landscapes of the Colorado River Delta in the United States and Mexico.

18. Sustainability Research Networks • Beyond RCN-SEES • larger, nationally important sustainability themes • Can fund gaps or new essential research for comprehensive thematic coverage. • Can enhance existing research networks • Encouraged to develop links to other networks, government, and private sector, nationally and internationally • Multidisciplinary education and training are crucial components

19. Water Sustainability and Climate (WSC) • Research on how Earth's water system is linked to climate change, land use, ecosystems, the built environment • Enable a new interdisciplinary paradigm in water research • Planning workshops, observatory/modeling and data synthesis Scott Simpson Bryce Richeter Synthesis of behavioral and ecohydrologic models for dryland rivers Climate change, land use, and urbanization in a Midwestern agricultural landscape

20. Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) • Educating Ph.D. scientists and engineers by building on disciplinary knowledge with interdisciplinary training. • 260 awards to over 110 lead universities in 43 states, DC, and PR (Since 1998) • Funding for approximately 5,800 graduate students. Credit: Ron Paik, Hawaii IGERT

21. Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) • FY2012 solicitations focuses solely on SEES topics • Encourages research on global sustainability including climate change, clean energy, food security, biodiversity, and communication networks. • Proposals should address linkages across natural social and/or built environments Goals -- To facilitate development of a diverse, globally engaged US science and engineering workforce. -- To promote opportunities where international collaboration can enable advances that could not occur otherwise. -- To engage and share resources and infrastructure within and across institutions to build international partnerships.

22. EPSCOR Programs Can Play a Vital Role in Sustainability endeavors A sustainable world is one in which human needs are met without harm to the environment, and without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their needs. www.nsf.gov/sees Credit: QiquanQiao, South Dakota State University Credit: Dauphin Island Sea Lab Credit: Phillip Dickens, University of Maine

23. Opportunity Space Ice sheet dynamics Human , natural system interactions Regional climate change Sustainability literacy Socio-economic factors Renewable Energy Workforce needs Big Data Behavioral changes

24. Possible Examples of Enhanced Leadership Roles in Sustainability • Graduate Students • International Science • Cyberinfrastructure and Big Data • Early-career faculty networks • Communication vehicles • … others…

25. Graduate Students • Every year, NSF supports 2,000 Graduate Student Research Fellows • Create an EPSCoR cohort? • Establish peer mentoring networks and reporting approaches (AAAS) • Communicate and model ethical behavior and inculcate scientific integrity • Bill of Rights for graduate students • Track and report longitudinal outcomes?

26. International Science

27. International PartnershipsWho is Collaborating with Who?

28. What about the developing world? • Most of Africa’s collaboration is with G20 countries, but South-South collaboration is a growing trend. • Egypt and Sudan - important bridges • Kenya and South Africa - important hubs

29. Vital Statistics – Unstoppable Trends • Since the beginning of the 21st Century, global spend has almost doubled • US, Japan, Europe, Australasia all increased spending by roughly one-third • China, India and Brazil more than doubled expenditure • Architecture of world science undergoing transformation, with global networks, mostly self-organized (exceptions, human genome, CERN, etc.) • US still leads the world, with 20% of world authorship • US, Japan, UK Germany, and France together command 59% • China now second highest producer • India has displaced Russia in top ten • US has lost roughly one-fifth of its share in the past ten years

30. Some Major Global Societal Issues(A. Leshner: Building a Global Science Community, Nov 2011) • Sustainability • Renewable energy • Information and communications technology • Universal access to education • Poverty and economic opportunity • Technology-based manufacturing and jobs • Intellectual property rights • Terrorism and security • Disasters • Science and Technology Capacity-Building • Vaccines and medical therapies • Quality and accessibility of Health Care

31. Internationally Collaborative Papers (2008) Source: Royal Society United States (2008) 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0 United States (1996) Number of Collaborative Papers UK Germany France China Switzerland Japan China 1996 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 Collaborative Papers as a proportion of national output

32. International Opportunities Fund • Single call for proposals – April 2012 • First round Thematic Foci: Coastal Vulnerability & Freshwater Security (>$30M) • Joint with G8 Heads of Research Councils • Commitment from 11 countries

33. Science and Society Transformed by Data • Sustainability Science and Engineering • Data- and compute-intensive • Integrative, multi-scale • Multi-disciplinary Collaborations To Address Complexity • Individuals, groups, communities • Sea of Data • Age of Observation • Distributed, central repositories, sensor- driven, diverse • Open access and data citation

34. SEES Fellows -- Workforce Development • Interdisciplinary, research partnerships, professional development • >180 competitive proposals, 20 awards, ~$9M, 10 new grads, 6 PhDs since 2010. (pending final approvals) Topics of recommended support • Atmospheric water transport • Soil sustainability • Food security • Shale-gas resources • Biodiversity • Wastewater treatment • Energy infrastructure • Resilience of coastal ecosystems • Biogeochemical cycling • Agricultural greenhouse gas emissions • Biological control agents • Impacts of urbanization • Natural resource management

35. Communications Thrivability and Sustain Life Extreme Events Energy from the Earth RAPID Response to Hazards 35

36. Thanks