This award establishes a new environmental synthesis center that will stimulate research, education, and outreach at the interface of the natural and social sciences in order to develop novel and effective solutions to global environmental challenges. The center's founding plan requires mutual engagement of social and natural scientists in a facilitated process that leads to joint refinement of synthesis projects and the framing of questions that transcend disciplinary boundaries. This plan is grounded in four key goals: the creation of new coalitions; learning at all levels; expansion and improvement of the synthesis process; and creation of a flexible, adaptive institution. These goals will be achieved through community-driven activities that encourage diverse methods of collaboration including distributed interactions, the use of social media to consolidate collective knowledge from a broad constituency, data visualization, and design charrettes. Through engagement of multiple disciplines in innovative activities, the center promises a fundamental reorganization in how synthesis is accomplished and put into practice.
The Center will advance environmental synthesis science by combining diverse perspectives - those from basic research, public policy, science translation, and education. Policy scholars from Resources for the Future, along with policy makers, natural resource managers, and scientists from governmental agencies, will be integral to all center activities. The center presents an unprecedented opportunity to build capacity and broaden participation by advocating synthesis as a process that includes learning at all levels. Students will be trained in the skills needed to carry out synthesis and engaged directly in the synthesis process, with particular focus on hearing- and physically-impaired students, inner-city urban students, non-traditional students, and ethnic minorities. A key aspect of the center's vision is to advance the process of synthesis itself. Through continual evaluation and assessment of center activities and products, and adjustments to center philosophy and management in response to this evaluation, the center will function as a laboratory to facilitate learning about and improving the process of synthesis.
