The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is investing over $1.4 million in projects that can serve as the first steps toward developing large centers for conducting multidisciplinary research activity. To help generate effective and long-lasting solutions that benefit the U.S. public, NSF’s Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) is supporting planning efforts to inform potential future Centers for Research and Innovation in Science, the Environment and Society (CRISES).
Through the CRISES opportunity, center researchers will develop evidence-based solutions that address fundamental quality-of-life issues, such as those involving the environment, sustainability, climate change, community development, social equity, workforce development and human well-being. These one-to-two-year projects bring together experts from a broad range of disciplines to explore the creation of centers to study and develop solutions to one or more pressing societal issues.
SBE’s former Assistant Director, Dr. Kellina Craig-Henderson, initiated the plan for the CRISES funding opportunity to address the need to work across disciplines to produce evidence-based solutions for human-centered problems that confront society. “Researchers funded by this opportunity may come from many disciplines within the social, behavioral and economic sciences, including decision sciences, risk analysis, policy and management studies, economics, psychology, geographic sciences and more,” said Dr. Sylvia Butterfield, SBE’s Acting Assistant Director. “Although they draw from different theoretical perspectives and varied methodological tools, they all strive to improve our understanding of human-centered actions and behaviors.”
Thirteen planning grants and two conference grants have been made so far, including one planning grant in a state that is part of the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) supporting areas in the U.S. that have historically received less federal support for research and development.
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