STC: Science and Technologies for Phosphorus Sustainability (STEPS) Center

Phosphorus, a major component of DNA, is one the fundamental elements of life. Phosphorus is vital to the productivity and sustainability of food systems, where it is used in fertilizers to improve crop yields that feed a growing population. Unfortunately, inefficiencies in phosphorus management result in phosphorus release into rivers, lakes, and oceans, leading to harmful algal blooms and poor water quality that threaten drinking water supplies and aquatic life.

Unlike other elements critical to life, such as carbon and nitrogen, phosphorus is not recycled through atmospheric processes. The phosphorus needed for agriculture is lost to the Earth’s oceans once it is released and more must be mined from non-renewable rock phosphate deposits to replace this loss. These current phosphorus management practices pose serious direct threats to national food and water security.

The Science and Technologies for Phosphorus Sustainability (STEPS) Center, a partnership between North Carolina State University, Arizona State University, University of Florida, RTI International, Appalachian State University, Marquette University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering at North Carolina A&T State University, and University of North Carolina at Greensboro, has a vision to achieve a 25% reduction in human dependence on mined phosphates and a 25% reduction in losses of phosphorus to soils and water resources within 25-years. To realize this “25-in-25” vision, center researchers will discover new science and develop new technologies and techniques that will increase the level of recycled phosphorus and reduce the dependence on mined phosphorus.

The outcomes of the center’s activities will lead to the enhanced resilience of food systems and improved environmental conditions. This center will broaden the participation of women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities in STEM disciplines. Education researchers in STEPS will investigate factors that influence students’ education and research experiences in a convergence research environment.

STEPS will develop publicly available, transdisciplinary educational modules for students and offer continuing education classes on phosphorus sustainability. The center will also organize an annual Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, including a Research Experience for Future Farmers track to guide the integration of STEPS research outcomes with the future generation of farmers.

A STEPS Stakeholder Community Group, comprised of individuals from industrial, municipal, agricultural, regulatory, and other sectors, will inform the direction and prioritization of research activities, interact with students, and facilitate the dissemination of research products.

As a convergence research center involving academic researchers and stakeholder groups, STEPS integrates contributions across the physical, life, social and economic sciences, and engineering to address wicked challenges in phosphorus sustainability. At the atomic to materials scale, STEPS will generate new fundamental knowledge about phosphorus capture and accelerate the development of novel techniques to reclaim organic and inorganic phosphorus.

At the scale at which humans interact with technology, STEPS will develop new materials and technologies for both aqueous environments and plant-soil-microbial systems that will be studied in laboratories, greenhouses, surface waters, and fields. At length scales up to global dimensions, STEPS will use integrated modeling and social network analysis to identify intervention portfolios that enable the realization of the 25-in-25 vision and are resilient to socio-economic, policy, and environmental changes.

The center researchers will use evidence-based approaches to assimilate new information and co-refine research questions through strategically designed interactions and processes among researchers and stakeholders. STEPS will use specific geographical sites representing urban, agricultural, and aquatic systems as conceptual anchors to provide technological constraints, potential impact scenarios, and connections to stakeholders.

Convergence research approaches, transformative educational integration, and coordinated broadening participation strategies, combined with stakeholder participation, will foster new solutions to reduce the nation’s dependence on mined phosphorus and result in sustainable management of the phosphorus cycle to ensure the nation’s future food and water security.

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.