What is a Research Coordination Network (RCN)? NSF sponsored program - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

What is a Research Coordination Network (RCN)?

• NSF sponsored program to build a network of researchers to tackle emergent challenges.
• Transformative discoveries will require interdisciplinary & multinational teams

The RCN program is not a mechanism to fund research Goals of the RCN program

• advance a field or create new directions in research or education
• support groups of investigators to communicate and coordinate their research
• train and educate across disciplinary, organizational, geographic and international boundaries
• foster new collaborations, including international partnerships, and address interdisciplinary topics.

Predicting vertebrate responses to a changing climate: modeling genomes to phenomes to populations Goal: establish a collaborative network spanning from genomes to populations to facilitate development of novel quantitative approaches to address the urgent challenge of predicting how species and populations will respond to a changing climate.

Primary activities:

• Host annual workshops to foster education and formation of new

interdisciplinary collaborations

• Train through exchanges between laboratories
• Develop and disseminate webinars derived from the workshops
• Develop and distribute educational modules to incorporate into K-12

curricula Principle Investigators:

• C. Loren Buck, Allyson Hindle, Nika Galic

Steering committee: Frank van Breukelen, Jenifer Utz, Marty Martin, Michael Romero, Kenia Bicego, Elinor Karlsson, John Delong Student Representative and Outreach Coordinator: Haley Hansen Support staff: Megan Coe, Gabrielle Chambers

Goal:

1) establish a collaborative network: 114+ members from >40 universities/agencies & >12 countries.

Primary activities:

2) Host annual workshops to foster education and formation of new interdisciplinary collaborations

• “Navigating Climate Change,” September 19-21, 2018, Flagstaff, AZ
• 38 participants, international and national
• “Modeling from Genomes to Phenomes to Populations,” summer 2019, Minneapolis, MN
• “Assessing High-Throughput Genomic Approaches,” summer 2020, Boston/Cambridge, MA
• “Modeling Mechanisms of Phenotypic Plasticity and Epigenetics”, summer 2021, Las Vegas, NV
• “Synthesizing g2p2pop,” summer 2022, Paraty, Brazil
• Final report to NSF
• NSF STC

3) Train through exchanges between laboratories

• Lots of opportunities here (15+ per annum).
• 4 funded, 2 International, 2 national

4) Develop and disseminate webinars derived from the workshops

• All in the works; talks from this and future workshops will be recorded and made available on our
• website. https://nau.edu/cbi-rcn-g2p2pop/
• Other materials are broadly dissemination on web and social media outlets

5) Develop and distribute educational modules for incorporation into K-12 curricula

• Recruited teachers & staff from Clark County School District; curricular development in

collaboration with Dr. J. Utz

“Navigating Climate Change”

9.30-10.30am: Dr. Scott Goetz: Professor, NAU, Flagstaff.

• Satellite remote sensing research for environmental science applications

10.45-11.45am: Dr. Andrew Richardson: Professor, NAU, Flagstaff

• impacts of global change on terrestrial ecosystems, and the feedbacks between

terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere 1.15-2.15pm: Dr. Thomas Whitham: Regents Professor, NAU, Flagstaff

• plant-herbivore interactions and a community-level understanding of the

consequences of plant genetics and environmental stress on keystone species 2.30-3.30pm: Dr. Stephen Jackson: Director, USGS, Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center, Tucson

• Vegetation and climate history of North America since the last glacial maximum &

adaptation to climate change