Subawardee

UW Oshkosh

Project Lead

Project Description

The UW Oshkosh Sustainability Institute for Regional Transformations (SIRT) is dedicated to supporting and facilitating interdisciplinary and community-engaged research and education around crucial sustainability issues in Wisconsin and beyond. SIRT takes a broad, holistic view of sustainability issues, working at the intersection of environment, economy, and society, and its events and projects have covered topics ranging from climate justice to sustainable food systems and community resiliency. SIRT has experience engaging with the issue of sustainable agriculture and has established relationships in this area; examples include hosting panel discussions on local agriculture featuring a range of stakeholders (Organic Valley representatives, members of the Wisconsin Farmer’s Union, and local farmers); working with the Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance on water quality issues that connect directly to agriculture; and is planning a series of events in February 2023 featuring a discussion of the book “New Roots for Agriculture” and a talk by an expert from the Land Institute outlining their work developing sustainable agricultural systems.

All of this experience positions SIRT well to capitalize on the support an NSF Engines grant would provide. The support from this grant will allow SIRT to build on what it is already good at- facilitating interdisciplinary research, hosting events and community conversations, making connections between researchers and community partners- to grow more fully into its mission. We propose, as part of this Engines project, to act as a “bridge” between researchers and research results on one hand, and practitioners and industry on the other, to translate research results into real, applied outcomes for industry, community organizations, and the workforce. We will do this by leveraging our already established abilities in communicating with and engaging a diverse range of audiences, and facilitating conversations between researchers and community partners, to develop a set of activities that will include focus groups, panels, workshops, and conferences, as well as policy briefs and white papers, that facilitate the transformation of research into policy and technological, economic, and workforce development. We envision this being a reflexive, iterative process, where we facilitate information flow in both directions, supporting both the development of community-engaged research informed by practice and experience, and the effective application of research results to address economic and social challenges. We also envision expanding SIRT’s reach beyond northeast Wisconsin, to grow into a hub of interdisciplinary sustainability research, practice, and development throughout Wisconsin and beyond. Given our unique strengths and our strong connections to the agricultural community through our Biodigester and our research and engagement activities, we feel well positioned to do this.

Award Amount

$32,510