Timeline showing the integration of life sciences, physical sciences, medicine, and engineering to support the Convergence revolution in life sciences that built on prior revolutions in molecular biology and genomics (National Research Council, 2014).
Convergence is a multi-/inter-disciplinary approach to research and problem solving that merges expertise and resources from several fields of study to develop innovative solutions to address complex problems. More information about convergence can be found in the 2014 report by the National Research Council of the National Academies,”Convergence: Facilitating Transdisciplinary Integration of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering and Beyond.”
The PAWES Engineering Research Center (ERC) planning grant is employing a convergent approach to address grand challenges relating to water treatment and conservation. To build a convergent team, “Strategic Doing” is being employed as part of the PAWES planning grant effort. Strategic Doing is a well-proven approach to strategic planning that places an emphasis on shared leadership and is especially useful for large industry and community teams with complex issues to address (Morrison et al., 2019).
As part of this process, the PAWES planning grant team is working with various groups of stakeholders to gather and share information and begin building trust. This includes outreach and engagement with rural and tribal communities; attending major industry conferences; and aligning efforts to optimize synergy with existing ERCs such as the Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT).
Using the NSF ERC planning grant and meetings with community members and stakeholders, PAWES will help establish network of leaders in various disciplines capable of developing high-impact solutions and effective engineering systems approaches to challenges facing wastewater treatment and water conservation, energy resources, and environmental sustainability.