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Implementing Next Generation Earth Systems Science at NSF
Next generation Earth Systems Science places a premium on integration of diverse research disciplines and approaches, coordination of supporting observing and computational infrastructure, collaboration among scientists and other stakeholders in shaping the research, and development of a workforce capable of working in a transdisciplinary environment. This chapter makes overarching recommendations for implementing these elements and discusses opportunities, barriers, and potential mechanisms that could be implemented by NSF across the program to foster development of next generation Earth Systems Science. Given the breadth and scope of the subject, the report and recommendations take a high-level approach that provides NSF with several options and the leeway to develop a feasible implementation plan.
4.1 AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO STUDYING THE EARTH’S SYSTEMS AT NSF
The committee’s first task was to describe the potential value and key characteristics of a robust, integrated approach for studying the Earth’s systems. These are described in Chapters 2 and 3 and are summarized below. The committee’s vision for an integrated approach to studying the Earth’s systems at NSF is as follows:
A next generation Earth Systems Science approach that explores interactions among natural and social processes that affect the Earth’s capacity for sustaining life, now and in the future.
The six key characteristics of that integrated approach are as follows:
- Advance both curiosity-driven and use-inspired basic research on the Earth’s systems across spatial, temporal, and social organization scales.
- Facilitate convergence of social, natural, computational, and engineering sciences to advance science and inform solutions to Earth systems−related problems.
- Ensure diverse, inclusive, equitable, and just approaches to Earth Systems Science.
- Prioritize engagement and partnerships with diverse stakeholders to benefit society and address Earth systems−related problems at community, state, national, and international scales.
- Use observational, computational, and modeling capabilities synergistically to accelerate discovery and convergence.
- Educate and support a workforce with the skills and knowledge to effectively identify, conduct, and communicate Earth Systems Science.
Recommendation 1. NSF should create a sustained next generation Earth Systems Science initiative that both furthers scientific understanding of the Earth’s systems and supports solutions to Earth systems−related problems. An integrated initiative that incorporates the six key characteristics requires sustaining and expanding NSF’s current practices. The objective is to harness existing capabilities and create new approaches by placing increased emphasis on use-inspired and convergence research while maintaining strengths in curiosity-driven Earth Systems Science; enhancing the participation of social, engineering, computational, and data scientists; and strengthening efforts to include diverse perspectives in the research and engage with stakeholders.
4.2 RESEARCH
The second task of the committee was to discuss emerging opportunities and barriers to progress for achieving the committee’s vision for an integrated approach for studying the Earth’s systems, including consideration of the interdependencies and synergies among all components. NSF has an opportunity to advance a complex systems of systems understanding of the Earth by (1) deepening the knowledge of the functioning and
interactions of the Earth’s systems across the full range of temporal and spatial scales and (2) developing knowledge to allow humanity to sustainably mitigate, manage, and adapt to future changes. Meeting contemporary and future challenges will involve expanding the discipline-specific research and theoretical conceptualizations that are the core of NSF and embracing a convergence research agenda.
In addition to curiosity-driven and use-inspired Earth Systems Science, new convergence approaches will help conceptualize and understand complex Earth systems dynamics and interactions. Knowledge of the Earth’s systems and their implications for well-being is found within and beyond science. Consequently, it is important to seek out broad perspectives and integrate a wide range of disciplines and approaches, including natural, social, computational, and engineering sciences as well as professional, local, and traditional knowledge to inform science and increase its utility in addressing contemporary societal challenges. This integration will involve overcoming different vocabularies, cultures, methodological and data mismatches, professional incentives, and power differentials across diverse scientific fields and stakeholder groups, many of whom have been excluded from Earth Systems Science. An example of these complexities in socio-environmental system (SES) modeling, many of which are applicable to other modeling domains, is shown in Figure 4.1. Integration of social sciences and involvement of stakeholders are critical for overcoming some of the challenges depicted in Figure 4.1 and thereby tying SES modeling efforts to decision-making and other human actions.
Other barriers to next generation Earth Systems Science include all of the circumstances that impede interdisciplinary and convergence research, such as the disciplinary organization of universities and federal agencies, the organization of professional societies and journals, and career paths and incentives for early career social and natural scientists and engineers (NRC, 2013; NASEM, 2019a). To overcome these barriers, it is critical to fund both the early stages and ongoing hidden labor of relationship building and collective ideation necessary for successful collaborative research. Creative team formation and research design based on principles of inclusion, open exchange of information, and shared learning are key to maximizing long-term research potential (NRC, 2013). Such research can lead to new conceptualizations of the Earth’s systems and potential future pathways and solutions, and can accelerate the use of these insights in decision-making.
NSF will have to incentivize building teams of researchers who do not normally work together, in both the near term and the long term, to break down disciplinary silos and engage new communities in knowledge production. One possible mechanism is requests for proposals—both
planning grants and full proposals—that require participation from investigators in different disciplines, at different career stages, with different backgrounds and identities, and housed at different capacity institutions with varying levels of resources and access to research support tools, which would diversify the science. Another mechanism is convergence centers to support expanding the definition of the research problem, building a research team and stakeholder group with the relevant perspectives and expertise, and developing systems approaches to address the problem. Other components of next generation Earth Systems Science—such as observational and research networks, synthesis centers, human networking facilities, major facilities, cyberinfrastructure, and data centers—bring people together and so would also foster team science. For any of these mechanisms, review and evaluation procedures that assess the novel integration of convergence proposals and that draw reviewers from several disciplines must be refined or developed. Expanding involvement and interaction across NSF directorates would also break down silos.
Earth Systems Science research teams could engage with a broad array of stakeholders outside the university realm during many phases of a project. Steger et al. (2021) developed a conceptual model for conducting convergence research, including collaboration or communication at all phases (see Figure 4.2). In a survey of those engaged in convergence
research, they found that projects with highest perceived impact were those initiated with practitioners or other stakeholders. Effective engagement of stakeholders often entails commitments to long-term relationship building and shared learning well before development and deployment of proposals. This long-term development of partnerships involves considerable time and resource investments from researchers, institutions, and stakeholders, which might pose a barrier to partnership formation for early career researchers, institutions without substantial resources, or some stakeholder groups. Furthermore, informal partnership developments are often centered around individuals, which risks partnership continuity if these individuals leave the organizations. A key to success noted in evaluations of convergent environmental science programs is flexibility of funding to reflect the time commitments crucial for academic researchers to collaborate fully with stakeholders (Steger et al., 2021). Reducing the barriers to participation is especially important when including people, organizations, and communities who have been historically marginalized or excluded, and require sustained support mechanisms to be structured to enable engagement in proposal development and funded research activities. Universities could play a role in breaking down these barriers by advancing partnerships and supporting the translation and use of Earth Systems Science (Jefferson et al., 2018; Kopp, 2021a,b). Furthermore, it is useful to understand the ethical and cultural drivers that influence stakeholders’ environmental behavior and decision-making in a range of contexts (Thaler and Sunstein, 2009; Kahneman, 2011; Sunstein, 2019). By following the steps outlined in Figure 4.2, novel scientific insights, informed by stakeholder knowledge, are not only possible but also essential to address contemporary and future challenges in the Earth’s systems.
Recommendation 2. NSF should remove barriers to convergence research, including facilitating engagement with stakeholders and building transdisciplinary teams. Convergence research for next generation Earth Systems Science requires new modes of interaction across directorates, between scientists, within research teams, and with stakeholder partners. Transdisciplinary teams and relationships with stakeholders develop over longer time frames than a typical research project and may have to be maintained for many years. Dealing with these realities is key to convergence research, team building, and productive and sustained engagement with stakeholders from individuals to multinational agencies and organizations.
4.3 DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND JUSTICE
Next generation Earth Systems Science provides the scientific foundation for societies to adapt to a changing climate, create a healthier and less environmentally damaging food system, restore ecosystems, and address other 21st century challenges. Creating an ethos of diversity, equity, and inclusion in Earth Systems Science would invite a broad range of perspectives, values, and experiences into this research. This would help dismantle barriers to more just opportunities, resulting in better research questions, more new ideas, more creativity, and more capacity. Some existing programs and structures within NSF are designed to help increase diversity, equity, and inclusion through education and workforce development,1 but it is equally important for this ethos to be integrated into Earth Systems Science approaches, such as co-production of knowledge and other forms of participatory knowledge creation. Achieving this goal will involve a change in research culture and management. While challenging, the task is not insurmountable, and concrete recommended actions exist, for individuals and communities (Behl et al., 2021) or for organizations (Ali et al., 2021; see Figure 4.3).
A barrier to inclusive Earth Systems Science is the legacy of exclusion in the community of Earth scientists. Several programs at NSF have made progress in addressing the problem. For example, an evaluation of the NSF-funded Opportunities for Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences program found that minority-majority institution collaborations, financial support, mentoring of cohorts, authentic research experiences, and placing of the science in a meaningful cultural context are effective in recruiting and retaining people from marginalized and excluded groups in the geosciences (Karsten, 2019). Direct support of students from historically excluded groups through programs designed to support effective mentorship and the inclusive development of science identity across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) (NASEM, 2019b; Behl et al., 2021), such as the NSF Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation, could also serve as good models for recruitment and retention of both undergraduate and graduate students.2 Some successful models for increasing diversity may also come from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs),
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1 Challenges associated with addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion in Earth Systems Science—and across STEM disciplines—arise throughout the education and career development pathways. However, K–12 education is not included in the purview of this report. Moreover, studies have shown a wide range of factors that can influence the recruitment and retention of individuals with diverse perspectives and lead to more inclusive and supportive environments (Gibbs and Griffin, 2013; Gibbs et al., 2014; McGee et al., 2016; NASEM, 2019c).
2 See https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13646.
which enroll more undergraduate students in STEM fields than non-MSIs3 and produce one-fifth of the nation’s STEM bachelor’s degrees (NASEM, 2019b). One example comes from atmospheric sciences at Howard University, an HBCU, which produced more than half of the nation’s Black and 30 percent of its Latina doctorate holders between 2006 and 2018 (Voosen, 2021).
Another area of opportunity for NSF is improving the accessibility and inclusion of disabled scientists in field, laboratory, and computational research. Issues with access to physical spaces4 such as field stations and sites can lead to a lack of participation by disabled scientists. Several programs are exploring how to remove barriers and increase opportunities for people with disabilities by providing innovative accommodations.5
In addition to improving diversity and inclusion in the scientific community, NSF can improve equity and justice in Earth Systems Science by increasing the participation of individuals with diverse perspectives in many aspects of NSF’s operations, as administrative leaders, program managers, review panels, and research teams. Research designs that account for heterogeneous effects of changes in the Earth’s systems across populations can be emphasized in program announcements and proposal evaluations. For example, the solicitation for the NSF Sustainable Regional Systems Research Networks program requires that “the lead or at least one of the core partner universities must be a university that serves populations of traditionally underrepresented students interested in STEM”6 and that at least 10 percent of the budget is committed to that organization or institution. Such efforts can encourage diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice as central pillars in next generation Earth Systems Science for the design and implementation of research projects. NSF could also encourage researchers to consider the implications of their proposed research and the composition of their research teams in proposal evaluation, with clear direction from NSF leadership and managers to researchers and review panels.
Recommendation 3. NSF should integrate diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in all aspects of next generation Earth Systems Science, including the determination of research priorities, evaluation of research activities, and development of the workforce. NSF’s ability to
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3 Comparing 4-year MSIs to 4-year non-MSIs (NASEM, 2019b).
4 See https://eos.org/opinions/creating-spaces-for-geoscientists-with-disabilities-to-thrive.
5 For example, see https://theiagd.org/forums/forum/resources, https://projects.kmi.open.ac.uk/era, and https://www.geo.arizona.edu/AccessibleEarth.
6 Defined in the solicitation as “minority serving institutions, women’s colleges, or institutions where the majority of the students are students with disabilities.” See https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2020/nsf20611/nsf20611.htm.
achieve this goal requires innovative approaches in all phases of research projects, including research into how to structure programs that include co-production of knowledge and other forms of participatory knowledge. In addition to the critical need to foster diversity in scientific leadership, management, and the scientific community, NSF can incentivize scientists to consider diversity of research teams, to support an inclusive culture, and to address the implications of their research on different segments of society in the design, implementation, and outreach of research projects.
4.4 OBSERVING AND COMPUTATIONAL FACILITIES
Synergies to Support Earth Systems Research
The committee’s third task was to identify potential synergies among current facilities, infrastructure, and coordinating mechanisms for Earth systems research and to recommend ways to leverage these efforts. On a broad scale, identifying these synergies could open up new fields of study or create new user communities. Because many aspects of NSF facilities, infrastructure, and coordinating mechanisms have been previously addressed in National Academies reports (e.g., Enhancing the Value and Sustainability of Field Stations and Marine Laboratories in the 21st Century [NRC, 2014]; Sea Change: 2015–2025 Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences [NRC, 2015]; A Vision for NSF Earth Sciences 2020–2030: Earth in Time [NASEM, 2020]), the committee focused here on the synergies among observing and computational facilities and infrastructure that are critically needed to support the convergence research that will dominate next generation Earth Systems Science. Multiuser facilities supported by NSF can play an important role in fostering convergence research,7 and further synergies can be sought among existing multiuser facilities or across fields of study. An example of a synergy among facilities is that identified by the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) to advance the capability of Earth system prediction to include terrestrial ecosystems and biological resources. NSF sponsored a workshop,8 which allowed the facilities to bring together scientists to discuss convergent research between the geosciences and ecology for ecological forecasting and prediction.
The field of study related to geohazard reduction is enhanced by the diverse expertise provided by facilities and infrastructure represented by
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7 “Multiuser facilities or shared, core facilities are increasingly involved in numerous research projects and can facilitate the ability of larger numbers of researchers to undertake convergent projects” (NASEM, 2019a, p. 32).
8 See https://www.neonscience.org/resources/learning-hub/workshops/predicting-lifeearth-system-linking-geosciences-and-ecology.
the Geodetic Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience, the Seismological Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience, and the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure, as well as smaller facilities such as the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping and Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (NASEM, 2020). In another example, several NSF facilities and programs already support coordinated research on ecological processes, including NEON and the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program. The oceanographic ships of the academic research fleet provide a platform for understanding biological, physical, and chemical processes in the deep and coastal oceans, while the Field Stations and Marine Laboratories program and the Critical-Zone Collaborative Network (CZCN) enable research at marine, freshwater, and terrestrial field sites. Cyberinfrastructure facilities such as Neotoma and Open Core Data support these programs. Connecting these facilities and cyberinfrastructure could augment regional and continental-scale ecology studies (e.g., Stuble et al., 2021), create new user communities, and help users find relevant data for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary projects that have an ecological component. NSF mid-scale infrastructure9 support could allow field stations and marine laboratories to work together to deploy advanced instrumentation, computation (e.g., on-site processing), and communication technologies in support of convergence research. Such advances, combined with the strong relationships that field stations and marine laboratories often have with local communities, provide a foundation for deepening and diversifying community connections to co-produce knowledge and advance use-inspired and convergence research to solve problems.
An important capability for all facilities is helping a diverse community use data. Although some facilities—such as NEON, LTER, and CZCN—collect common measurements and establish standard data formats to compare sites within their network, few facilities have the capacity to offer training and tools that a diverse community with different skill sets can use. Barriers to integration and collaboration (which are key elements in convergence research) include the wide breadth of relevant data, different languages and cultures, different units of analysis, lack of shared norms and practices, insufficient computational and informatics skills, lack of data standards or incentives to use them, and an ad hoc and varied approach to data archiving. Examples of mechanisms that could help lower these barriers include joint programs between NSF cyberinfrastructure and observing facilities (e.g., Center for Advancement and Synthesis of Open Environmental Data and Sciences) or science programs
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9 See https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=505550.
(e.g., EarthCube) that provide resources, tools, training, and services for collaborating and working with the data.
In addition to these existing, traditional facilities and infrastructure investments, new approaches that support collaboration and networks among scientists and stakeholders are critical to advancing the collaboration, ideation, and the qualitative and quantitative data development and integration that are essential to advance convergence approaches. Established NSF-supported institutions for synthesis and integration of ecological, environmental, and sociocultural data, such as the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis and the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, provide models of “best practices” to achieve large-scale, cross-system transdisciplinary synthesis and to advance convergence research in Earth Systems Science. The NSF-funded CONVERGE10 is an example of a center that advances these approaches for convergent research on natural hazards. Another example is the Engineering Research Visioning Alliance,11 which brings together multiple disciplines to tackle societal engineering challenges and illustrates collaborative, cross-disciplinary, and convergent approaches. Lessons and practices learned from the collaborations conducted in virtual spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic may also provide insights and opportunities for broader interactions (Heggeness and Williams, 2021).
Recommendation 4. NSF should promote and support collaboration, instrumentation, cyberinfrastructure, and data-sharing activities among facilities for the production of convergence research for next generation Earth Systems Science. This includes leveraging synergies between cyberinfrastructure and observing facilities, collaborating across science divisions, and working to increase adaptive flexibility as use-inspired research needs evolve.
Computational, Data, and Analytic Support for Earth Systems Research
The committee’s fourth task was to discuss computational, data, and analytic support for Earth systems research, including guidance on harnessing existing, planned, and future NSF-supported cyberinfrastructure. Computing infrastructures, technologies, and system architecture approaches are changing rapidly in ways that will influence the development and evolution of next generation Earth Systems Science. For example, central processing unit (CPU) architectures are being replaced
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10 See https://converge.colorado.edu/about.
11 See ervacommunity.org.
by heterogeneous many core architectures with accelerators (e.g., graphics processing units, tensor processing units, and field programmable gate arrays), forcing codes to be re-engineered or redeveloped from scratch. This creates an opportunity to fundamentally rethink existing Earth systems software—retaining what is well designed and modernizing what is not—and to build community codes that are easy enough to use to attract a broad developer and user base, flexible enough to allow a range of different applications, and adaptable to continuously evolving hardware architectures. These community codes typically involve tens of thousands to millions of lines of code, requiring a shift from the “small group, graduate-student-as-programmer” model to one that also involves highly trained research software engineers as part of the research team. Research software engineers are vital to ensuring that the modern best practices in software development are applied to ensure long-term code health, scalability, robustness, accessibility, and usability by diverse user groups. A long-standing barrier is that stable support for research software engineers is difficult to achieve through short-term research grants. Thus, only universities that support such experts will be able to take advantage of evolving computer architectures for next generation Earth Systems Science.
Another transition is that new models of computing such as cloud computing provide an alternative way to access and leverage computing resources and to share them with a broad community. Involvement of both public and private cloud computing facilities may be a solution to the potential high costs associated with storing large data sets (generated using new technologies), data analytics, and compute capabilities needed. In addition, new programming languages and methods for describing computational science workflows offer novel ways to perform computational science. User support will be needed as these resources are adopted in addressing the complex problems that will emerge in next generation Earth Systems Science.
Barriers to integration and collaboration include the wide breadth of relevant data, different languages and cultures, different units of analysis, lack of shared norms and practices, insufficient computational and informatics skills, lack of data standards, and an ad hoc and varied approach to data archiving and sharing. Investments in software engineering and data science are important to develop tools that can be used for multiple purposes and to make it easier for different communities to access and use data.
NSF could also commit to providing the necessary computing resources across directorates to support next generation Earth Systems Science. Currently, NSF computing resources are oversubscribed, and other science agencies do not have spare computing capacity (NASEM, 2016).
Partnerships with other agencies, however, may provide access to different specializations, such as the Department of Energy for Exascale computing. NSF should continue to provide access to its high-performance computing resources. However, such access has been provided through a series of short-lived programs, and no replacement to the current program (NSF Solicitation 20-606) has been announced.
Recommendation 5. NSF should provide leadership in the computational revolution by expanding resources (e.g., hardware, software, data analytics, and skilled workforce) and ensuring equitable access to them. Earth Systems Science will need to advance with the fast pace of changes in computation and observations. Proactive planning to harness this revolution requires engaging computational and data scientists and research software engineers as critical members of the Earth systems scientific community and ensuring the provision of sufficient computing resources.
The above advances in computing and observing infrastructure have improved the collection and processing of data from many sources. While the technological issues, such as interoperation of data, computational requirements, and storage and network costs, are important, so are the issues of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data (Wilkinson et al., 2016). Open access to data and research results have large costs and associated challenges, limiting the potential for expanded stakeholder engagement. It remains difficult to provide access to data from many different sources, in part because of ownership, privacy, and data accuracy issues. The Census Bureau offers a model for handling privacy-restricted data, in this case for social science research purposes.12 Enforcement of data management plans is essential for ensuring that data collected using NSF funding become available to the community.
4.5 WORKFORCE AND TRAINING
The committee’s fifth task was to discuss workforce development to support the personnel needed to advance Earth systems research. NSF plays a major role in developing the research workforce for Earth Systems Science, including educating students and providing professional development opportunities for practicing scientists. Undergraduate and graduate students must be prepared to enter a work environment in which disciplines converge, computational analyses are in demand, spatial and temporal reasoning is required, complex problem-solving is performed,
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12 See https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/ces/data/restricted-use-data.html.
and strategies for conducting community and partner-engaged science that have specific societal benefits are at hand. Scientists interested in convergence research recognize the importance of new skills in building multidisciplinary research teams and co-producing knowledge with stakeholders outside the academic research community (see Section 4.2). In addition, non-educational entities such as industry; nonprofits and advocacy groups; and local, regional, or tribal governments can help contribute to workforce development and professional preparations for non-academic opportunities.
The future Earth Systems Science workforce builds on both a strong foundation of disciplinary knowledge and skills and an expanding recognition for a need to span disciplines. NSF-supported summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs13) and CUREs (Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences) engage students in disciplinary research and prepare them for careers in these fields (Corwin et al., 2015; NASEM, 2017). Growing Convergence Research14 provides support for the intentional development of multidisciplinary teams to conduct research that are societal and/or scientific grand challenges and do not fall under other current solicitations. Training and new learning experiences are an important part of convergence, but rigorous evaluation criteria and methods are also needed to gauge success in teaching disciplinary and interdisciplinary skills.
Training for interdisciplinary and convergence research is piecemeal. More intentional approaches would help students identify and solve complex system-based problems, and thus be better prepared to enter the Earth Systems Science workforce. As noted above, new competencies will be useful in developing computational literacy, quantitative and qualitative skills, spatial and temporal reasoning, inclusive cultural competence, leadership, and team science. The siloed nature of higher education poses challenges to developing such competencies, but opportunities exist for interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity. At the undergraduate level, for example, competencies may be integrated in education via liberal studies courses, team-teaching, and seminars at the introductory (e.g., first-year seminars) and upper levels. Problem-oriented REUs that cross disciplinary boundaries would also be an innovative approach to building such skills in a research context. Such programs would have multidisciplinary teams of students and faculty exploring and researching problems from the range of perspectives included in Earth Systems Science (e.g., physical, life, computational, social, engineering). Graduate curricula may provide
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more flexibility and research opportunities for putting those new skills into practice. Programs such as NSF’s National Research Traineeship15 offer an opportunity to develop and implement convergence research while providing graduate students with the necessary competencies for the next generation Earth Systems Science workforce. The Innovations in Graduate Education program16 seeks innovations in graduate education that may help students in research-focused programs develop a broad range of skills, knowledge, and competencies. Adequate support and funding are needed for any of these programs to continue to be effective. Figure 4.4 provides a summary of aspects of transdisciplinary training from graduate to professional career stages.
Opportunities for the current workforce to develop skills and experience in interdisciplinary and convergence research on the Earth’s systems include skill-focused workshops and networking opportunities across the natural and social sciences, computer and data science, and system and disciplinary engineering. For example, exposure to system engineering methodologies and practices that deal with developing requirements, system design, and understanding critical pathways and vulnerabilities has proven useful for applications such as integrating climate science into transportation infrastructure engineering.17 The NSF Future of Work: Human-Technology Frontier programs, housed within the Directorate for Engineering, are structured to provide intentional cross-disciplinary support for convergent research and could offer a model for supporting convergent research in Earth Systems Science.18 An example of skill-focused training is the early career petrophysics workshop program at the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Bremen Core Repository.19 Incentives, including time and funding to develop skills and networks, could be provided to the current workforce to speed advancement of Earth Systems Science. For example, a program similar to the Mid-Career Advancement program,20 which supports skills building of researchers at the associate professor rank (or equivalent) typically through partnerships, might function as a support to help individuals build skills, knowledge, and competencies for next generation Earth Systems Science later in their careers.
Recommendation 6. NSF should promote and support the development of the workforce for next generation Earth Systems Science, including undergraduate and graduate students, scientists, and engineers looking
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15 See https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=505015.
16 See https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2020/nsf20595/nsf20595.htm.
17 See https://theicnet.org.
18 See https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=505620.
19 See https://usoceandiscovery.org/petrophysics-summer-school-2019.
to engage in convergence research. Mechanisms include sponsoring established and emerging programs that promote the development and evaluation of the necessary skills and competencies. Exposure to convergence research, transdisciplinary teams, and a diversity of perspectives in undergraduate and graduate training would foster the development of the current and future workforce. Research software engineers and system engineers should also be considered a part of the Earth Systems Science workforce.
In summary, NSF has played key roles in Earth Systems Science for several decades. As this research increasingly reveals the implications of human-driven changes in Earth systems for society, NSF has the opportunity to expand and refocus its efforts. Next generation Earth Systems Science, based on enhanced participation and collaborations across critical disciplines and with a wide variety of stakeholders, can contribute to both improved fundamental understanding of our planet and the ability to guide its future for the benefit of society.
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