Systems Thinking for Research ON Geography-based Coastal Food Energy Water Systems (Strong Coasts).pptx

With 40% of the world's population residing within 100 kilometers of a coast, these environments are critical to local and global economies. Human activity related to the generation and use of food, energy and water has been linked to impacts such as nitrogen pollution that degrades the quality of coastal waters. This degradation affects reef ecosystems, fisheries, and people's economic livelihoods and health. Replenishment requires innovative systems thinking and better consideration of the way food, energy, and water systems are integrated in terrestrial and coastal environments. STRONG Coasts is a five-year National Research Traineeship (NRT) that will foster interdisciplinary, 21st century, and global competency skills of graduate students at the University of South Florida (USF) and University of the Virgin Islands (UVI). It develops a transformative community-engaged training and research Food Energy Water Systems (FEWS) program where graduates experience integrative training and research to design innovative solutions to sustainably managing complex and interconnected coastal systems. The project pushes the concept of "ridge-to-reef systems" in new directions by considering the technological, institutional, environmental, and sociocultural factors that shape FEWS. The project provides direct funding to 29 trainees in an integrated community of graduate scholars that will ultimately include 23 PhD-level trainees from engineering and anthropology at USF and 6 MS level trainees from marine and environmental sciences from the Historically Black University partner, UVI. With creation of a FEWS graduate certificate and FEWS tracks in existing programs that provide students with a significant international training and/or research experience, the total number of graduate students impacted by STRONG Coasts is expected to exceed 109 over 5 years.