The Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems Program at the U.S. National Science Foundation: lessons learned in interdisciplinary funding program development and management
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Historical context
What became the NSF Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) competition emerged from a complex mix of factors ranging from the global to the personal in scale. During the 1990s, new interdisciplinary activities designed to address major environmental issues flourished. Within the United States, a multi-agency U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) had been established to coordinate activities across government agencies and with research programs in other nations. The World
Establishment of CNH as a special competition
The opportunity to take advantage of an increasingly active community and identification of exciting new research directions presented itself in the wake of the 1999 announcement by NSF Director Rita Colwell that NSF's next major environmental initiative would emphasize biocomplexity, which focused on properties emerging from the interplay of behavioral, biological, chemical, physical, and social interactions that affect, sustain, or are modified by living organisms, including humans [7].
Continuation of CNH as a standing program
As the Biocomplexity in the Environment initiative wound down after 2005, four of the five special competitions ended, purportedly because the activities that were supported through the special competitions had been incorporated into the standing programs of NSF and/or other new competitions served the same communities. The CNH program directors argued, however, that the larger-scale, explicitly interdisciplinary research and related activities supported by CNH would not continue to be
Factors contributing to CNH persistence
In the 15 years since the first Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems competition, 14 competitions were held. The program's original goal of providing long-term support for interdisciplinary research that examines the complex interactions within and among natural and human systems has been met. Other observers need to provide objective assessments of the program's strengths and weaknesses, but for the authors of this article, all of whom have served as CNH program officers, the
Ongoing issues confronting CNH
Despite many noteworthy accomplishments by CNH-supported researchers and consistently strong support from directorate and division leaders in relevant parts of NSF, a number of issues have required frequent attention to enable ongoing conduct of the program.
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CNH's ongoing status as a standing multi-directorate program. Although joint support from the biological sciences, geosciences, and social and behavioral science directorates has been critical to the success of CNH, especially since 2007,
Lessons learned from 15 years of CNH experience
In conclusion, while the overall experience of CNH has been positive, a number of critical lessons have been learned that apply not only to CNH but to other efforts to provide long-term support for interdisciplinary research examining interactions among people and the natural environment they inhabit.
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Much of CNH's success may relate to its status as the hybrid product of top-down interests reflected in the NSF-wide biocomplexity and sustainability initiatives and bottom-up activities based on
References and recommended reading
Papers of particular interest, published within the period of review, have been highlighted as:
• of special interest
•• of outstanding interest
Acknowledgements
Thomas J. Baerwald and Sarah L. Ruth are current employees of the National Science Foundation. Baerwald is a senior science advisor in the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences. Ruth is a section head in the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences in the Directorate for Geosciences. Penelope L. Firth recently retired from NSF, where she last served as division director of the Division of Environmental Biology in the
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