FUNDING-NSF - Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems (INFEWS); September 26, 2018

 

Agency

 

National Science Foundation

National Institute of Food and Agriculture

 

Description

 

The INFEWS program seeks to support research that conceptualizes food, energy, and water (FEW) systems broadly and inclusively, incorporating social and behavioral processes (such as decision making and governance), physical processes (such as built infrastructure and new technologies for more efficient resource utilization), natural processes (such as biogeochemical and hydrologic cycles), biological processes (such as agroecosystem structure and productivity), and cyber-components (such as sensing, networking, computation and visualization for decision-making and assessment). Investigations of these complex systems may produce discoveries that cannot emerge from research on food or energy or water systems alone. It is the synergy among these components in the context of sustainability that will open innovative science and engineering pathways to produce new knowledge, novel technologies, and innovative predictive capabilities.

 

The overarching goal of the INFEWS program is to catalyze well-integrated, convergent research to transform understanding of the FEW Nexus as integrated social, engineering, physical, and natural systems in order to improve system function and management, address system stress, increase resilience, and ensure sustainability. The NSF INFEWS activity is designed specifically to attain the following goals:

 

1. Significantly advance our understanding of the food-energy-water system of systems through quantitative, predictive and computational modeling, including support for relevant cyberinfrastructure;
2. Develop real-time, cyber-enabled interfaces that improve understanding of the behavior of FEW systems and increase decision support capability;
3. Enable research that will lead to innovative and integrated social, engineering, physical, and natural systems solutions to critical FEW systems problems;
4. Grow the scientific workforce capable of studying and managing the FEW system of systems, through education and other professional development opportunities.

 

Announcement Number:

 

18-545

 

Closing Date:

 

September 26, 2018

 

Link to Full Announcement

 

https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2018/nsf18545/nsf18545.htm

 

Contact Information

 

Thomas Torgersen

(703) 292-4738

ttorgers@nsf.gov