The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently announced a partnership with the Department of Agriculture’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to create the joint program on Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems (INFEWS).
Of the $46.6 million in new grants for the INFEWS program, $36.6 million is NSF grants. The INFEWS program will be supported by a cross-cutting segment of NSF directorates, including the Directorates for Geosciences (GEO); Engineering (ENG); Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE); Mathematical & Physical Sciences (MPS); Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences (SBE); Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE); and Office of Integrative Activities (OIA). From the program announcement:
INFEWS projects are designed to address such goals as:
- Significantly advancing the understanding of the food-energy-water system through quantitative, predictive and computational modeling, including support for relevant cyberinfrastructure.
- Developing real-time, cyber-enabled interfaces that improve understanding of the behavior of the food-energy-water system and increase decision support capability.
- Enabling research that will lead to innovative solutions to critical food-energy-water system problems.
- Growing a scientific workforce capable of studying and managing the food-energy-water system through education and other professional development opportunities.
Outcomes of the INFEWS awards aim to help decision-makers at every level better address human needs, and protect the natural world. Goals are for scientists and policymakers to gain a new understanding of the food-energy-water system, gather insights from innovative modeling, and develop new capabilities from cutting-edge technologies to reduce waste and increase efficiencies.
The food, energy, water nexus has been a focus of recent Computing Community Consortium (CCC) activity as well. The Intelligent Infrastructure for Smart Agriculture: An Integrated Food, Energy and Water System white paper, part of the CCC series on Intelligent Infrastructure, highlights the need to “build sustainable physical and cyber infrastructures to enable self-managing and sustainable farming” through “emerging technologies such as small satellites, broadband Internet, tele-operation, augmented reality, advanced data analytics, sensors, and robotics.” Read the full white paper here.
To find out more about the INFEWS program, view the program announcement here.
