INFEWS/T4: The INFEWS-ER: a Virtual Resource Center Enabling Graduate Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems

This project will provide a virtual environment for completing the Food, Energy, and Water (FEW) graduate student experience. The proposed work facilitates a transition from interdisciplinary to transdisciplinary training of existing faculty and current graduate students through a virtual resource center to help develop systematic processes for interdisciplinary thinking about large societal problems, especially those at the nexus of food, energy, and water.

Full Description

This project will provide a virtual environment for completing the Food, Energy, and Water (FEW) graduate student experience, thereby facilitating the generation of human capital who can address grand challenges at the nexus of food, energy, and water. The INFEWS-ER will provide educational resources (ER) targeting innovations at the nexus of FEW by combining the fundamental sciences of food, energy, and water with the skills and knowledge of interdisciplinary problem solving and the latest computational modeling and analysis tools and data. These individuals will be capable of analyzing scenarios at the scale of nations, continents, and the globe. The INFEWS-ER will offer certificate programs where FEW Graduate Scholars can demonstrate their capabilities in interdisciplinary thinking, Big Data, and computational modeling and analysis, thereby receiving a credential demonstrating their level of achievement. Further, The INFEWS-ER will offer a faculty fellowship program to incentivize a network of academics that will provide a scaffolded learning environment for graduates, effectively creating a hub for INFEWS research, education, and training.

The proposed work facilitates a transition from interdisciplinary to transdisciplinary training of existing faculty and current graduate students (who will become future faculty, practitioners, and policy makers) through a virtual resource center that will be accessible beyond the project team and project timeframe. Students will develop systematic processes for interdisciplinary thinking. They will be in the best possible position to target large societal problems, especially those at the nexus of food, energy, and water. New, interdisciplinary solutions will emerge, solutions that are sensitive to a wider array of constraints and ideals. Those solutions will reflect the best possible integration of technological, socio-economic, and socio-political constructs. Project impacts include educational and workforce development of the next generation of academics, multi-institution collaboration, and enhanced infrastructure for transdisciplinary research and education. The INFEWS-ER also has the potential to influence the way interdisciplinary research and education is implemented in the future through the archival dissemination of not only learning modules, but also the evaluations and lessons learned from the implementation of the center.

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