This award provides support to U.S. researchers participating in a project competitively selected by a 55-country initiative on global change research through the Belmont Forum. The Belmont Forum is a consortium of research funding organizations focused on support for transdisciplinary approaches to global environmental change challenges and opportunities. It aims to accelerate delivery of the international research most urgently needed to remove critical barriers to sustainability by aligning and mobilizing international resources. Each partner country provides funding for their researchers within a consortium to alleviate the need for funds to cross international borders. This approach facilitates effective leveraging of national resources to support excellent research on topics of global relevance best tackled through a multinational approach, recognizing that global challenges need global solutions.
Working together in this Collaborative Research Action, the partner agencies have provided support to foster global transdisciplinary research teams of natural (including climate), health and social scientists and stakeholders from across the globe to improve understanding of climate, environment and health pathways to protect and promote health. The projects will provide crucial new understanding into the health implications arising from the impacts of climate change and variability on; 1) the quality/quantity of food, 2) chronic exposure to increases/changes in heat and humidity and 3) changes in the distribution and incidence of a range of infectious diseases and emergence of novel pathogens. This award provides support for the U.S. researchers to cooperate in consortia that consist of partners from at least three of the participating countries to increase our knowledge of the complex linkages and pathways between the climate, environment and health to help solve complex challenges that face societies.
The Micro-Poll seeks to develop a multidisciplinary understanding the impact of environmental change on pollinator communities and crop production and resilience in Nepal. Pollinator decline is predicted to have negative impacts on human health as key micronutrients in insect pollinated crops such as vitamin A and folate are lost from the diet. This “hidden hunger†is predicted to cause significant global health burdens. Pollinator loss disproportionately harms developing countries, as they are both less resilient to yield drops and more reliant on the micronutrients found in small-scale pollinator-dependent crops. Diversifying the diet by increasing access to micronutrient-rich fruits, vegetables and legumes may provide a long term, sustainable solution. The project will identify the crops providing key micronutrients and the dominant pollinators of these micronutrient-rich crops; investigate impact of change on key crop pollinators and the ensuing impact on crop production and micronutrient intake; and test the resilience of the insect pollination of micronutrient-rich crops. The project will work with local researchers and community organizations to carry-out the research and disseminate the findings to help decision-makers develop possible solutions to this challenge.
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.
