NSF Funded National Synthesis Centers
Judith A. Verbeke
The NSF funded National Synthesis Centers play a critical role in organizing and
synthesizing biological knowledge that is useful to researchers, policy makers,
government agencies, educators, and society. They develop new tools and standards
for management of biological information and meta-information, support data analysis
capabilities with broad utility across the biological sciences, host workshops that bring
together scientists from a variety of disciplines, and host and curate databases.
Synthesis Centers do not support the collection of new data; they add value to data
already collected.
The Directorate for Biological Sciences at NSF pioneered Synthesis Centers more than 15
years ago in response to community requests for a Center that would bring scientists
together to synthesize the growing body of data in the field of ecology. The vision was
to create a Center that would address new questions, pose new research approaches,
and advance existing fields in new directions through the process of synthesis. The
specific questions or problems to be addressed were not to be defined by the Center, or
specified in the initiating proposal, but rather be proposed by the research community
and thus to change over time. Over its 15 years of operation, this Center (the National
Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, or NCEAS; http://www.ncceas.ucsb.edu )
facilitated synthesis to answer scores of specific questions, advocating a new culture of
collaboration in the field of ecology. Since its inception in 1995, NCEAS has hosted more
than 5,000 individuals and supported more than 500 projects; products have included
both high volume and high profile publications, stellar postdoctoral training in synthesis,
and – to a lesser extent – educational and outreach materials.
NSF/BIO now supports a portfolio of National Synthesis Centers that realize synthesis in
different ways and focus on different disciplines and approaches. These Centers
capitalize on economies of scale, cutting edge cyberinfrastructure, and foster innovation
in ways not possible by individual researchers. The research conducted by scientists
who participate in these Centers has become increasingly collaborative,
interdisciplinary, and international. New social challenges have arisen around how
scientists work together across disciplines, institutions, and geographic and political
boundaries – and how we measure the impact of these shifts. As a result, the notion of
synthesis as advanced by Centers has changed considerably since NCEAS’ inception.
The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCENT; http://www.nescent.org )
promotes the synthesis of information, concepts and knowledge to address significant,
emerging, or novel questions in evolutionary science and its applications. This Center’s
science, informatics, and education and outreach programs serve the science
community, educators and the general public. NESCENT science includes a broad
portfolio that spans a wide range of organisms, habitats, methods, and disciplines.
NESCENT’s education and outreach activities include Darwin Day Roadshows, teacher
training workshops, and an evolution film festival. The core NSF funding to NESCENT
has enabled the Center to initiate or participate in additional externally funded
cyberinfrastructure projects that are aligned with the Center’s mission.
The National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBIOS;
http://www.nimbios.org ) supports creative solutions to complex problems at the
interface between mathematics and biology. NIMBIOS enables scientific advances with
high impact in areas as diverse as agriculture, the environment, health, and national
security. This Center includes education programs aimed at the mathematics/biology
interface, thereby building the capacity of mathematically competent, biologically
knowledgeable, and computationally adept researchers needed to address the vast
array of challenging questions in this century of biology. Education and outreach occurs
at many levels, including K-12, research experiences for undergraduates, partnerships
with minority-serving institutions, postdoctoral training, and education of the general
public.
The iPlant Collaborative (iPlant; http://www.iplantcollaborative.org ) provides
cyberinfrastructure to enable new conceptual advances in plant sciences through
integrative, computational thinking. iPlant focuses on grand challenge questions in the
plant sciences, including innovative approaches to education, outreach, and the study of
social networks. This Center involves plant biologists, computer and information
scientists and engineers, as well as experts from other disciplines who all work together
in integrated teams. The cyberinfrastructure created by iPlant provides access to worldclass physical infrastructure as well as services that promote interactions that advance
the use of computational thinking in plant biology. The iPlant cyberinfrastructure
framework includes hardware, software, and support for the multidisciplinary teams.
The Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC; http://www.sesync.org ) uses
synthetic approaches to advance the frontiers of scientific understanding of
environmental complexity in order to anticipate and manage environmental challenges.
SESYNC is dedicated to creating synthetic, actionable science related to the structure,
functioning, and sustainability of socio-environmental systems. The Center defines
“actionable science” as scholarship that has the potential to inform government,
business, and household decisions; improve the design and/or implementation of public
policies; influence public or private sector strategies, planning and behaviors that affect
the environment. Workshops sponsored by the Center engage philosophers,
sociologists, political scientists, psychologists, anthropologists, environmental biologists,
and policy makers to integrate broad disciplines from the outset and to set precedence
for all subsequent activities.