The goal of this multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary project is to prepare future agriculture, engineering, and natural resource managers to address the complexities of managing for multiple uses and working with stakeholders through the development of graduate student and faculty experiences in Systems Thinking (ST) and Systems Dynamics (SD). Natural resource issues are frequently deemed “wicked problems” that involve “hard systems” (ecosystem structure and processes) and “soft systems” (diverse values of stakeholders) that both inform and are influenced by management decisions.  The audience for this project includes Master’s and PhD students enrolled in agriculture and natural resource programs at the multiple participating institutions and their faculty mentors. Graduate students in these programs are training to become managers of natural resource systems and will likely be challenged to address wicked problems throughout their professional careers that exist at the nexus of food, energy, and water systems. 

To address these needs, following objectives guide this project:

#1: Develop a one-year fellowship, entitled the “Food, Energy, and Water Systems Fellowship,” for graduate students and faculty that joins our four institutions in training the next generation of agriculture professionals who can address wicked food, energy, and water issues.

#2: Develop the fellowship curriculum and associated learning materials so other graduate programs across the United States may implement similar training and evaluate the use of those materials.

This graduate training and faculty development in ST and SD will be valuable at the state, national, and international level.