Conference: Leveraging Innovations from Evolution Scoping Session

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

This award will support an in-person scoping event for a new multi-division effort at NSF called Leveraging Innovations from Evolution (LIFE), which will focus on the topics of evolutionary innovation and convergent evolution. Diverse lineages of organisms have evolved innovative complex traits in response to myriad environmental challenges. A major goal in modern biology is to identify the genetic mechanisms that underlie these complex traits as well as to understand the evolutionary trajectories that result in complex phenotypic outcomes. The study of convergent processes provides unparalleled opportunities to explore the origins, mechanisms, and macroevolution of complex adaptive traits. By studying convergent innovations, scientists can leverage natural replicated experiments to identify both generalizable and unique solutions to life’s common problems. The LIFE Scoping Session aims to prioritize research and training in this cross-disciplinary area to speed discovery and understanding of repeated innovations in response to changing environments in lineages from across the tree of life. Basic research leveraging the diversity of life to understand how organisms have adapted and solved repeated challenges has the potential to provide unprecedented advances for the bioeconomy (e.g., create/improve industrial processes, develop new products and services, and produce new energy). It is therefore important to foster a nascent community of diverse researchers who are comfortable spanning the fields of systematics and molecular and cellular biology. This scoping session will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana, August 14-16, 2023, and will be facilitated by KnowInnovation. The specific objectives of the LIFE Scoping Session is to (1) bring together experts working at the forefront of multiple domains including evolutionary biology, systematics, development, molecular biology, biochemistry, and genomics to bridge the cultural and intellectual gaps among these disciplines; (2) engage the BIO and BIO-adjacent communities to identify specific research challenges and opportunities in the study of evolutionary innovation and convergent evolution; (3) articulate needs, strategies, and recommendations to enable transdisciplinary research into convergently-evolved innovations including research, infrastructure, and educational priorities; and (4) to jumpstart ideas and collect input from a large and diverse community to explore potential areas of research in leveraging evolutionary innovation to support the bioeconomy. The main tangible products from the session will be a series of short white papers developed by the participants, and a synthesis report developed by a smaller team selected from the organizing committee and the participants. 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.