The University of Arizona announced a new $3 million grant that will help its graduate student researchers take on the worldβs challenges from climate change to sustainable food resources.
The National Science Foundation Research traineeship βBRIDGESβ Program will provide two academic years for 20 masters and doctoral students in the UAβs Ecosystem Genomics Initiative, whose purpose is to allow scientists from different fields to collaborate to solve those challenges.
The grant money will help students for the next five years. Ecosystem genomics is defined as a field of science focusing on how the processes at a genetic or genomic level can scale up to influence the ecosystems humans depend on, according to UA.
The grant will allow students to develop βnew models to inform global climate policy, identify genes and genomic interactions that enhance crop yield, and prepare graduate students to join the national workforce in fields such as ecosystem management, medical genetics and food security,β a UA news release said.
Those students will also partner with industry leaders with a focus on βenhancing crop resistance to drought in the Southwestern U.S., advancing sustainable rice production in Asia, and testing evolution-ecology theories with precision ecosystem experiments,β UA said.
The university said the mission remains in diversifying the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.
The student researchers will later share their wisdom through βmentored mentoring,β the school said.
Those studentsβ efforts also extend to additional teaching and outreach opportunities to local minority-serving high schools.
Students will also be able to showcase their projects in the annual Institute in Ecosystem Genomics Convergence, allowing them to advance proposals, share results of team-based research experiences and participate in interactive workshops for professional development and training in inclusivity, according to UA.
βAs a student-centered Research 1 university, the University of Arizona is committed to bridging scientific achievement with student success and opportunity, and this award from the National Science Foundation will further our ability to train a new, diverse and interdisciplinary body of scientists who are equipped to take on our worldβs greatest challenges,β said UA President Robert C. Robbins.
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