A Focus on Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability

In a sustainable world, human needs would be met without chronic harm to the environment and without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Addressing the grand challenge of sustainability, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has developed a coordinated research and education framework, called the Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (SEES) portfolio (http://www.nsf.gov/sees). The growing family of SEES activities, currently consisting of 11 programs, represents a major interdisciplinary investment by NSF that reflects the following topical themes: environment, energy and materials, and resilience. The SEES research and education program portfolio emphasizes the use of systems-based approaches to address critical challenges at the nexus of environmental, energy and materials, and economic systems, including social and behavioral dynamics and questions of human resilience and vulnerability. The SEES portfolio seeks to increase capabilities for understanding, predicting, and responding to changes in the linked natural, social, and built environment. Within the above three themes of SEES, NSF supports a variety of new programs that are proceeding down three pathways to advance sustainability: (1) building the knowledge base, (2) growing the workforce of the future, and (3) forging critical partnerships. Through SEES’s goals and themes, proposed linkages and partnerships, and planned future trajectory, scientists can enact targeted plans for ensuring the sustainable future of human society. The research and education communities are strongly encouraged to create interdisciplinary proposals that address aspects of sustainability.

If you would like to edit a resource, please email us to submit your request.