Dear Colleagues,

The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) in partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF), Resources for the Future (RFF), and University of Maryland (UMD) is convening an international symposium June 11-13, 2018 in Annapolis, MD, to bring together leaders, emerging scholars, and other key individuals interested in innovating research and processes for solving socio-environmental problems.

The Boundary Spanning: Advances in Socio-Environmental Systems Research symposium will explore the current state of socio-environmental systems research, recent advances in the field, and the unique challenges and opportunities engendered by the questions and approaches of socio-environmental systems research. In addition, the symposium will catalyze and inspire new collaborative and interdisciplinary communities of research and practice.

All interested attendees must be willing to present their work in one of several formats: as an oral presentation, a poster, or a lightning talk. Therefore, all interested attendees must submit an abstract for consideration. Symposium talks, sessions and discussions will be organized around three guiding themes: socio-environmental systems under stress, in transition, and by design.

• Under Stress: Socio-Environmental Systems under Stress explores how species, ecosystems, cultures and societies respond to dramatic stress events. Stress may result from extreme weather events, changes in fire regimes, toxic releases or chronic pollution, disease outbreaks, social or economic disruptions, political conflict, and beyond. Stress may also stem from power imbalances and exposure to socio-environmental inequalities. ​How have ecological and social systems changed under such stress? How can outcomes inform more robust management and adaptation strategies?
  
• In Transition: Socio-Environmental Systems in Transition examines dynamics of persistent and directional change in socio-environmental systems, including urbanization, economic development, human migration, coastal sea-level rise, land cover and land use change, water and resource availability, markets and trade, shifting racial or cultural landscapes, human-environment interactions, etc. What are the socio-environmental implications of these transitions? How can we sustain natural systems in transition while building social resilience? ​
  
• By Design: Socio-Environmental Systems by Design assesses outcomes of engineered landscapes and intentional efforts to alter, manage, or direct the structure and functioning of socio-environmental systems. It involves ​governance, urban planning, infrastructure, environmental justice, synthetic biology solutions, technology, ​conservation or protected areas, scientific inquiry and knowledge production, etc. What are the effects of system design? How can we better design systems to overcome challenges and create socio-environmental opportunities? ​

SESYNC welcomes abstracts from socio-environmental systems researchers at all career stages and from all disciplines, sectors, countries, and backgrounds. SESYNC will review abstracts based on merit, the degree to which presentations align with symposium themes, and the appropriateness of presentation types selected. The application deadline to present and attend is March 2, 2018.

There is no fee to register or attend this symposium. SESYNC will provide attendees with air travel, lodging, and meals for the duration of the Symposium.

If you are interested in submitting an abstract for a presentation of any type, please apply here: http://symposium.sesync.org/apply.html

Please check the symposium website for more information, including the schedule of events: http://symposium.sesync.org/. Please send any questions to symposium@sesync.org.

Thank you.

Kathleen Nolan, Director, ANR Office of Contracts & Grants (OCG)

Dear Colleagues,

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) within the U.S. Department of Energy, advances high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private-sector investment.

On February 13-14, 2018 in Phoenix, AZ, ARPA-E will host a workshop entitled “The Energy-Smart Farm: Distributed Intelligence Networks for Highly Variable and Resource Constrained Crop Production Environments”.

Meeting projected demands for fuel, food and fiber in the 21st century requires a transformation that will sustainably double crop productivity in the face of competition for arable land and fresh water and increased exposure to climatic shocks. This workshop will convene experts in the biological, physical and computational sciences to explore emerging opportunities in advanced sensing systems for energy-smart agriculture. The overall challenge is to monitor the physical, environmental and biological conditions that limit growth at high spatial and temporal resolution throughout production cycle and to identify interventions that relieve those constraints. Should this become a funding opportunity, teams will be asked to develop innovative technology suites and decision support tools that maximize sustainable economic returns by conserving resources and energy, increasing yield, and gathering critical data for life cycle analysis and participation in environmental service markets.

Technologies of interest are intended to support the development of fully-integrated, low-cost sensor networks with connectivity standards for user-friendly, turn-key solutions in highly-variable, resource-constrained environments. Specific interests include:

-        Sensors:a range of biological, chemical, and mechanical sensors (e.g. CNT, photonic crystal, etc.) that have potential to be downscaled with minimal precision sacrifice and can withstand a wide range of conditions.

-        Low-cost, small-scale computing “at the edge”: High-resolution distributed data generation, local computation and secure transmission of information in remote locations.

-        Wireless sensor networks: Overcoming technical barriers in secure, reliable, and energy-efficient connectivity and coordination.

-        Multiscale, multimodal sensor deployment and integration: Data fusion techniques to register remote-sensor, point-sensor, genomic, weather, and other data for broad-acre usage.

-        Analytics and Machine Learning: Algorithms to optimize yields in practice; user-friendly interfaces; permissioned management and secure data transmission on the farm and through product delivery to the supply chain.

Target outcomes include:

-        The identification of specific technical barriers to the development and adoption of the aforementioned tools at acceptable cost to growers.

-        Realistic timeframes and technical metrics for successful prototypes.

-        New professional relationships among disparate technical communities in the biological, chemical, engineering, and computational sciences, which could form the basis for teaming opportunities.

If you are interested in participating in the workshop, you may apply to attend by sending an email to ARPA-E-workshops@hq.doe.gov stating your interest in attending. See additional details at the following event website: https://arpa-e.energy.gov/?q=workshop/energy-smart-farm-distributed-intelligence-networks-highly-variable-and-resource

Registration instructions will be sent to potential attendees who have provided complete information and as space permits. Advance registration is required for entry to the workshop.

Thank you.

Kathleen Nolan, Director, ANR Office of Contracts & Grants (OCG)

Dear Colleagues,

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is hosting SciComm, a conference dedicated to understanding and promoting effective communication of science to diverse audiences – including students of all levels as well as the general public – across all venues. The conference will take place from March 23 – 25, 2018 on the University of Nebraska campus in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The conference has six key areas of focus:

• Informal STEM Learning: Engaging students and the general public through informal activities conducted outside of the classroom.
• Science Communication Research: Discovering the best methods to ensure that your audience engages with and retains scientific communications.
• K-12 STEM: Supporting the effective dissemination of scientific information and investigative skills in K-12 classrooms.
• Disciplinary-Based Education Research: Facilitating student comprehension and retention of scientific concepts.
• Science and Media: Enabling collaboration between scientists and science communicators in today's dynamic media environment.
• Broader Impacts: Helping scientists determine the best way to expand the reach of their work.

The event will feature numerous activities:

Friday, March 23rd

• Professional Development Workshops: AAAS, Portal to the Public (PopNet), Improv for Scientists (Friends of Joe's Big Idea) and Summing-up Your Science in 90 Seconds
• Student Lightning Talk competition on the following topics: climate change, vaccines, evolution. NPR's Joe Palca and Maddie Sofia will judge and participate in feedback and discussion following talks.
• Evening Film Festival

Saturday, March 24th

• Keynote address by Dr. Jacqueline Gill from the Climate Change Institute. Dr. Gill applies an interdisciplinary approach combining paleoenvironmental reconstructions from lake sediments, modern field ecology, and modeling. She is also the co-host of the Warm Regards Podcast.
• Morning of talks on topics encompassing Informal STEM Learning, Science Communication Research, K-12 STEM, Disciplinary-Based Education Research (DBER), Science and Media and Broader Impacts.
• A special question and answer panel with local NPR and NET staff on the theme CRISPR and the News.
• A Community Science Festival - an opportunity to engage the public (or yourself) in hands-on science activities.

Sunday, March 25th

• Keynote address by NPR's Joe Palca, NPR Science Contributor, founder of Joe's Big Idea, and former president of the National Association of Science Writers.
• Morning of talks on topics encompassing Informal STEM Learning, Science Communication Research, K-12 STEM, Disciplinary-Based Education Research (DBER), Science and Media and Broader Impacts.

Registration includes your choice of two workshops on Friday the 23rd and two full days of talks and activities on the 24th and 25th.If you are interested in participating in the workshop, you may complete registration at the following link: http://nescicomm.com/registration/. The cost to attend is as follows:

• Regular Admission – $130
• Students/K-12 Teachers – $40

Please forward this blog announcement to any colleagues and K-12 teachers who may have interest.

Thank you.

Kathleen Nolan, Director, ANR Office of Contracts & Grants (OCG)

Dear Colleagues,

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced the 2018 Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) funding opportunities. The program supports projects addressing global health and development challenges related to:

Innovations in Immunization Data Management, Use, and Improved Process Efficiency

Within this call to promote the effective use of timely and relevant data to drive programmatic performance, and thus increase the number of children vaccinated globally, the Foundation is looking for innovative ideas in the following specific areas:

• Innovative ideas for improving the measurement approaches for immunization data (e.g., process, equity, coverage indicators) with a focus on data use by program managers, triangulation across data sources, and methods to measure and quantify data use.
• Novel approaches for improving process efficiency that will lead to improved quality of service delivery.

Affordable, Accessible, and Appealing: The Next Generation of Nutrition

The Foundation desires to advance innovative technologies to enhance the availability and accessibility of affordable, nutritious foods for low-income consumers, working within the key constraint that these innovations must be relevant to market-based food systems in low and middle-income countries. Overall, our target population is young women, mothers, and children from 6-23 months of age. Accordingly, the proposed technologies funded must not undermine exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life.

Tools and Technologies for Broad-Scale Disease Surveillance of Crop Plants in Low-Income Countries

The goal of this topic is to solicit innovative tools and technologies for crop pests and disease surveillance over large geographic regions in low-income countries. The Foundation is looking for tools and approaches that have the potential to transform crop pest and disease surveillance globally, with a focus on low-income countries. Ideas that result in increased coverage of geographic area will be prioritized over ideas that increase diagnostic accuracy. Ideas that are applicable or adaptable to multiple crops and diseases/pests will be prioritized over ideas that are specific to only one crop or pathogen. Because the focus is on low-income countries, successful proposals will take into account small-scale, difficult-to-reach, intercropped farming systems with multiple pests and diseases.

Grants will be awarded in the amount of $100,000, and successful projects will be eligible to receive follow-on funding up to $1 million. The program requests innovative idea concept papers (limited to two pages) by May 2, 2018. No preliminary data is required.

Other Grand Challenges grant opportunities are as follows:

• Grand Challenges: Campylobacter spp. Transmission Dynamics in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Application deadline is May 2, 2018.
• Grand Challenges Explorations – Brazil: Data Science Approaches to Improve Maternal and Child Health in Brazil. Application deadline is May 2, 2018.
• Grand Challenges Explorations – India (Round 4). Application deadline is March 31, 2018.
• Misk Grand Challenges: Activating Global Citizenship: Building the Next Generation of Global Citizens for the Global Goals. Application deadline is May 2, 2018.
• Misk Grand Challenges: Reinventing Teaching and School Leadership: Preparing the Youth with the 21st Century Skills Needed for a Knowledge Economy. Application deadline is May 2, 2018.
• Grand Challenges for Development: Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge. Application deadline is April 12, 2018.

Thank you.

Kathleen Nolan, Director, ANR Office of Contracts & Grants (OCG)