Dear all, The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center<http://www.sesync.org/> (SESYNC) in Annapolis, Maryland invites proposals from highly qualified PhD students interested in conducting collaborative, socio-environmental synthesis research<http://www.sesync.org/visitor-resources/videos> (i.e. “Graduate Pursuits”) in parallel with their doctoral degrees.
Graduate Pursuits are supported for a period of 18 months as part of the first-of-its kind Graduate Student Research Program<https://www.sesync.org/for-you/educator/programs/graduate-programs> at SESYNC. Support centers around travel, meals, and lodging for 3–4 in-person meetings at SESYNC, but also includes a suite of services ranging from team facilitation and leadership training, to computational and cyber infrastructure resources and data acquisition, to science communication and outreach. SESYNC is particularly interested in Graduate Pursuit proposals that bring together diverse backgrounds and disciplines as well as diverse sources of data in novel, integrative ways to solve pressing environmental issues. Graduate Pursuit proposals that are designed to be applicable or generalizable across multiple locations and scales in addition to those with potential to contribute to decision-making and non-academic communities are also of special interest. Multiple teams are currently in development and looking to add student collaborators interested in synthesizing the following broad topics: * Agriculture, built environments and urban planning * Coral reef health, media and policy * Urban stormwater pollution, process-based solutions and machine learning * Marine protected areas, resource economies and climate change * Deforestation and institutional governance * Smallholder agriculturalists, weather variability and complex models * Adaptive management, sudden and unexpected events and the science-policy-resource nexus * Indigenous sovereignty and conservation practice and policy Contact Dr. Nicole Motzer – SESYNC Graduate Program Manager – at nmot...@sesync.org<mailto:nmot...@sesync.org> for additional details, to connect with a team, or to pitch a Graduate Pursuit idea of your own! The full Request for Proposals can be found here<http://www.sesync.org/opportunities/research-thematic-pursuits/graduate-pursuits-request-for-proposals>, while previously supported graduate research teams are listed here<https://www.sesync.org/projects-results/funded-projects?audience=All&keys=&field_research_theme_tid=All&field_opportunity_program_type_tid=4>. Proposals are due May 15, 2018. International students and students at institutions outside of the US are encouraged to apply. Thanks very much! -- Nicole Motzer, PhD Graduate Program Manager Interdisciplinary Researcher and Research Coordinator National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) University of Maryland, College Park 410-919-4823 nmot...@sesync.org<mailto:nmot...@sesync.org> www.SESYNC.org<http://www.SESYNC.org>