Linking Fellows Working on Sustainability Science

Nancy DicksonSustainability Science Program

Center for International DevelopmentKennedy School of Government

Harvard Universitywww.cid.harvard.edu/sustsci

Forum for Sustainability Science ProgramsAAAS Annual Meeting, Boston, 16 February 2008

Sustainability Science

An emerging field of problem-driven research dealing with

• the interactions between natural and social systems, and

• understanding how those interactions can help address the challenge of sustainability:

meeting the needs of present and future generations while substantially reducing poverty and conserving the planet’s life support systems.

Source: Proceedings on the National Academy of Sciences http://www.pnas.org/misc/sustainability.shtml

Fellowship Programshttp://sustainabilityscience.org/content.html?contentid=2073

Fellowship Types• Level: Masters, Doctoral, Post-doctoral, Mid-

career (practitioner, scholar)• Support for: Interdisciplinary degree,

complement disciplinary degree or professional expertise

• Connectivity: Fellows, Faculty, Institutions• Responsibilities: independent project,

participate in faculty-led project, teaching, combination

• Eligibility: university, country, region, global• Tenable where: university, country, region,

global

Why link fellows?To build a build a world-wide

community of peers to:

• Learn about perspectives of sust science• Share and critique each others work• Promote one another’s career path• Mentoring• Be future collaborators

Proposals for linking fellows could include

• Virtual forum• Events to bring together scholars and

practitioners of sustainability science• Short course hosted by rotating institutions• Exchange programs• Internships to link scholarship with practice• Society of fellows• Job fair

Virtual Forum

• Fellows Network– Current fellows– Alumni fellows

• Fellowship opportunities

• Career opportunities for junior scholars and practitioners

Who’s doing some of this already?

Forum “Network Members”http://sustainabilityscience.org/

Events to bring together scholars and/or practitioners of sustainability science

• One-time events• Periodic/annual conference• Job fairs

Who’s doing some of this already?

Network for Emerging Leaders in Sustainability http://sustainability.nationalacademies.org/NELS.shtml

A Short Course on Sustainability Science• Goal:

– Expose each other to research approaches of participants

– Create an intellectual community across institutions and seniority

– Create sustainability science curriculum• Host on rotating basis by numerous institutions• Faculty bring 1-2 fellows from their institution• Week of intense training in area(s) of that

institution’s substantive and methodological specialization?

• Week of intense training taught by a team of faculty focusing on different modules?

• Who’s doing some of this already?

Book: Short Introduction to Sust ScienceDasgupta (Cambridge), Clark (Harvard), Bongaarts (Population Council),

Matson (Stanford), Ostrom (Indiana and ASU), Kates, Schellnhuber (PIK), Turner (Clark)

1. Why sustainability science?2. What are the historical patterns of transitions in human-environment

systems?3. How do we conceptualize human-environment systems?4. How do resources and environment respond to human activities?5. How does human well-being depend upon natural resources/environment? 6. What should we worry about? 7. What are the important driving forces affecting sustainable development?8. What determines the vulnerability and resilience of human-environment

systems?9. How do we to motivate sustainable development action? 10. How are we doing at sustainable development?11. How does one do sustainability science? 12. Core research questions13. Grand action challenges

Linking Fellows RoundtableBeacon B

• Arun Agrawal, University of Michigan• Sarah Banas, Forum on Science and Innovation for Sust Dev, AAAS• Bill Clark, Harvard University• Nancy Dickson, Harvard University• Becca Goldman, Stanford University• Tom Kelly, University of New Hampshire• Jianguo (Jack) Liu, Michigan State University• Edward Miles, University of Washington• Marty Perreault, Sustainability Roundtable, NAS• Robin Reid, Colorado State University• Melanie Roberts, AAAS Science and Technology Fellows Program• Daniel Schaffer, Academy of Sciences for the Developing World• Takeuchi Kazuhiko, University of Tokyo• Tom Tomich, University of California at Davis• Juli Trtanj, NOAA's Oceans and Human Health Program

Follow-up• Sustainability Science Program, Harvard Univ

www.cid.harvard.edu/sustsciNancy Dickson, nancy_dickson@harvard.edu

• Forum on Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development www.sustainability.science.orgSarah Banas, sbanas@aaas.org

• National Academies’ S&T for Sustainability Programhttp://sustainability.nationalacademies.org Marty Perreault, mperreault@nas.edu