Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for In-Situ Control of the Nitrogen Cycle (In-SINC)

规划资助：氮循环原位控制工程研究中心（In-SINC）

• 批准号: 1840402
• 负责人: Gerardine Botte
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: Ohio University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-09-01 至 2020-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1840402&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Planning; Grant; Engineering; Research; Center

The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research. This planning grant will develop well-formulated plans for a future Engineering Research Center for In-Situ Control of the Nitrogen Cycle. The program combines expertise in engineering, chemistry, data science and analytics, environmental science, and social and policy science, and establishes a flexible and robust process to identify and engage stakeholders. These stakeholders span academia, industry, and government, and will collaborate in the planning grant to define convergent research themes within four primary thrusts: (1) distributed fertilizer manufacturing, (2) efficient and controlled application of nitrogen fertilizer, (3) fertilizer recycling, and (4) nitrogen cycles as social-ecological systems. Development within these themes provides a platform for a sustainable "closed loop approach" for 21st century food supply, where nitrogenous fertilizers are efficiently produced, applied, and recycled at or near the site of application. Information gathered from the core team and stakeholders during the initial stages of the planning process will be developed into a formal set of technical goals within each of the four thrust areas.This project has the potential to advance knowledge in the distributed small-scale ammonia production, the availability of nitrogen flow and application models, knowledge of soil and water chemistry and nitrogen-based environmental effects, and achieving a heightened understanding of the interface of technologies with socio-ecological systems. The proposed program establishes the necessary convergence approach required to address these challenges, while narrowing focus to challenges related to fertilizer inefficiencies, and to engineering-based approaches and adoption. The program brings broad expertise, including expertise required to link technology efforts with societal impact, establishes convergence research themes, and develops metrics appropriate for measuring progress towards these themes. Over-production and application of nitrogen fertilizer in the developed world is responsible for a broad range of deleterious environmental effects, even while agriculture in the developing world suffers from a lack of bioavailable nitrogen. The planning grant catalyzes a process to solve challenges related to fertilizer production, application, and recycling, with additional focus on the regulatory and economic factors that ultimately connect engineering innovation with societal impact.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.

工程研究中心竞赛的计划赠款是在ERC计划中作为试点招标进行的。 在整个ERC竞争中，不需要计划赠款，但旨在在团队之间建立能力，以计划收敛的中心规模的工程研究。该计划赠款将为未来的工程研究中心制定良好的计划，以对氮周期的原位控制。 该计划结合了工程，化学，数据科学和分析，环境科学以及社会和政策科学方面的专业知识，并建立了一个灵活，强大的过程来识别和吸引利益相关者。这些利益相关者涵盖了学术界，行业和政府，并将在计划赠款中合作，以定义四个主要推力中的收敛研究主题：（1）分布式肥料制造，（2）（2）氮肥的有效且受控的应用，（3）肥料回收，以及（4）NITROGEN CYCLES（4）NINITROGEN CYCLES等社会生物学系统。这些主题的开发为21世纪食品供应提供了一个可持续的“闭环方法”的平台，在该供应中，氮肥在施用现场有效生产，应用和回收。在计划过程的初始阶段，从核心团队和利益相关者收集的信息将被发展为四个推力区域中每个区域内的每个技术目标。该项目有可能提高对分布的小规模氨产生的知识，氮气流的可用性，对土壤和水的知识，基于基于硝化的环境的知识，以及对技术的效果，并逐步了解了阶级，并实现了逐步的效果。拟议的计划建立了应对这些挑战所需的必要融合方法，同时将重点缩小到与肥料无效相关的挑战以及基于工程的方法和采用方面所需的挑战。该计划带来了广泛的专业知识，包括将技术工作与社会影响联系起来所需的专业知识，建立了融合研究主题，并开发了适合衡量这些主题进度的指标。氮肥在发达国家中的过度生产和应用也导致了广泛的有害环境影响，即使发展中国家的农业缺乏生物利用的氮。规划补助金促进了一个过程，以解决与肥料生产，应用和回收相关的挑战，并额外关注的是法规和经济因素，最终将工程创新与社会影响联系起来。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识绩效和广泛的影响来评估的评估。