NRT: Boston UniverCity - Partnering Graduate Students and Cities to Tackle Urban Environmental Challenges

Trustees Of Boston University, Boston

Investigators

Abstract

More than half of the world's population lives in cities, and the shift to urban population centers is anticipated to continue growing. Cities often face environmental challenges such as air and water pollution, extreme weather events, or storm surges. Addressing these issues in urban environments is complex and requires diverse areas of expertise, including interdisciplinary technical knowledge and the ability to communicate effectively with all stakeholders. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship award to Boston University will prepare graduate students to tackle the major environmental problems confronting cities using an interdisciplinary approach that fuses biogeoscience and environmental health, with an emphasis on engagement and communication with policy makers, the private sector, and the broader community. This project anticipates training 60 Ph.D. students, including 20 NRT-funded trainees, from biogeoscience, environmental health, and statistics. Graduates will be equipped to address foundational questions about the physical environment and to reduce the impacts of the environment on both ecosystem function and human health. The training model has three linked elements, including (i) interdisciplinary coursework in biogeoscience, environmental health, data analysis, field research methods, and city governance offered at Boston University; (ii) workshops and internships with cities and the private sector; and (iii) outreach through mixed media to communicate urban environmental questions, science, and solutions to the public. Student research topics will be formulated using a collaborative process that involves students, faculty, policy-makers, members of the private sector, and an external advisory council. This training program (i) will contribute to a diverse and globally competitive STEM workforce through use of evidence-based approaches in recruitment, mentorship, training, and retention of Ph.D. students, with an emphasis on underrepresented minority students; (ii) will lead to dissemination of a new training model that can be adopted by other universities around the U.S.; and (iii) will result in translation and communication of research results to policy-makers at multiple levels of decision-making. The program will be evaluated through regular assessments of trainee learning and communication skills and by assessments of how trainees? efforts have affected decisions made by the city of Boston and other stakeholders. The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new, potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The Innovations in Graduate Education Track is dedicated solely to piloting, testing, and evaluating novel, innovative, and potentially transformative approaches to graduate education.