This IRES project will provide U.S. graduate students from the University of Wisconsin at Madison funds to spend six months conducting research in Montpellier, France at Ecole Nationale Superieure Agronomique de Montpellier (Agro-M) or associated French research labs run by INRA, CNRS, CIRAD, or IRD. The proposal will fund three U.S. graduate students per year to spend one semester in Montpellier over a three-year period. Students will conduct research on biological and social science approaches to environmental issues and their scientific and political solutions. Two faculty members from UW will also visit Montpellier for 18 days each year to strengthen ties and facilitate collaborative research projects. This partnership between the University of Wisconsin Madison and Agro-M will leverage funding already supplied by the FACE program of the French Embassy in DC.
Intellectual Merit The graduate students who will be funded by this award will conduct research in areas related to conservation science and environmental issues such as the effects of landscape changes on regional biota; molecular genetics of plant symbioses; phylogenetic statistics; policy, politics, and management of peri-urban land development; linking climate change to changes in land-cover; linking public health to deforestation in the Amazon; the effects of global warning on plant physiology and species ranges; and global environmental governance in cross-cultural perspective.
Broader Impacts Support is provided for nine U.S. graduate students to conduct research in France for an entire semester, thus providing a group of U.S. students with substantial international research experiences that will prepare them to operate successfully in a global environment. The linkages created by their visits will support lasting international collaboration. Two U.S. faculty will also be able to visit collaborators in France at Agro-M and the associated labs for shorter periods of time to strengthen their research ties and ensure that the U.S. students who visit are taking advantage of the resources in Montpellier in an optimal way. The principal investigators will utilize programs at the University of Wisconsin geared towards supporting students with disabilities, students from under-represented minority groups, and women, to make sure they recruit a broad spectrum of participants.
