DISES-RCN: Resilience in agricultural socio-environmental systems

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).

The proposed Research Coordination Network will utilize four existing agriculture research networks to create a ‘network of networks’ that will use existing data and resources to begin to address some of these large-scale, big-picture knowledge gaps in agricultural sciences. It will build a robust transdisciplinary and collaborative community that will act as a hub for conducting long-term, multi-scale research focused on resilient agricultural systems; drive theoretical and data science advances; and develop practical applications to understand, reduce, and mitigate the vulnerability of agricultural systems to collapse within and across multiple scales.

These advances will contribute directly to food security and sustainable natural resources. This project will be of interest to decision makers, researchers, farmers and the general public.

This proposal details the creation of a Research Coordination Network (RCN) that brings together 4 networks to enable sharing and integration of data, expertise, and knowledge; develop a collaborative community; strengthen existing and foster new synergies; and incorporate a diversity of perspectives and knowledge less likely to be realized in one institution or isolated network. The proposed network is uniquely positioned to advance knowledge about the resilience of integrated agricultural systems beyond the plant/plot/field/farm scale and will address the coupled human and environmental components.

It is novel in its creation of a network of networks that will leverage the diverse domains of expertise, and scales of inference, of each network. The project will also take advantage of existing data collection programs by multiple U.S. agencies (e.g., NEON, ClimateHub), and provide the opportunity for the novel application of those data sets to research questions that will be significantly broader than the institutional mandate of each individual network.

The proposed network will provide an empirical basis for goals of food security in an increasingly uncertain and non-stationary time for human societies. The project will directly impact researchers, students, scientists, technicians, farmers, stakeholders and partners across the extensive and diverse membership of the 4 networks and the Advisory Board.

The proposed network will mentor, train, and challenge students in diverse and innovative research and connect them with scientists and communities across the network to promote professional and personal growth. Findings and results will be broadly disseminated through the four networks and beyond.

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.