The Warner College of Natural Resources is calling for proposals for the Dean’s Grants for Transdisciplinary Approaches to Environmental Wicked Problems and Transdisciplinary Travel Grants for the program’s second year.

In his first year as the dean of the Warner College, A. Alonso Aguirre utilized funding from Ed Warner’s generous endowment to create the College grants to support transdisciplinary engagement. The inaugural grant winners were officially announced at the college’s annual awards ceremony on April 17.

Aguirre strongly believes in the transdisciplinary approach to research, which combines knowledge from academia with knowledge from the surrounding local communities to undertake difficult social and cultural problems, also known as wicked problems. His work has emphasized such approaches for the past 25 years, and he has seen firsthand how combining knowledge from multiple areas of expertise can create new knowledge and theory that achieves common goals.

“Transdisciplinary methods transcend disciplines to address real-world problems,” Aguirre said. “By cross-thinking and breaking down the silos between disciplines, more efficient and purposeful work can happen.”

The Dean’s Fund for Transdisciplinary Approaches to Wicked Problems offers two $25,000 grants and one $50,000 grant to fund transdisciplinary projects by multidisciplinary teams from across the College and University.

Kevin Crooks, director of the Center for Human-Carnivore Coexistence, helped lead a successful proposal in the 2022-23 grant round titled “A One Health transdisciplinary approach to human-wildlife coexistence.” The team includes faculty from all eight colleges at CSU as well as additional internal and external partners. The project received the $50,000 award and secured matching funds from multiple units across campus.

“Our team will focus on a wicked problem with global relevance: human-wildlife coexistence in agricultural and developed landscapes,” Crooks said. “We will adopt a One Health framing, a transdisciplinary approach to improve human, animal and environmental health.”

Liba Goldstein, professor in the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, led a proposal that was awarded $25,000 entitled “Evaluating the potential for informal green spaces to support biodiversity, deliver ecosystem services and promote equity in urban landscapes.”

“We are so grateful to have received support for transdisciplinary research and conservation here in our own community of Fort Collins. With these funds, we hope to improve the ability of informal green spaces to provide benefits to people and nature, with a strong focus on equity and access,” Goldstein said.

The second $25,000 grant is helping to build a transdisciplinary community of practice focused on social-environmental challenges in Latin America through the Just Social-Ecological Transitions, or JSET, project.

“A primary goal is to build a community for collaborative research and to support graduate students and faculty across campus,” said Principal Investigator Joel Correia. “This semester, we are hosting weekly seminars and have already had speakers from Chile, Bolivia and across CSU. Our events are open to the CSU community and designed to cultivate the potential for transdisciplinary action research.”

The JSET project also coordinates Jakaru!, a bring-your-own-lunch event to build community while speaking Spanish, Portuguese or any other non-English language spoken in Latin America. The JSET action plan is being refined through workshops, and a National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network proposal is in development that will launch the project’s research agenda in new directions.

The Dean’s Transdisciplinary Travel Grants also funded five Warner College faculty, post-docs and graduate students to attend a conference outside of their typical disciplinary areas.

“People tend to go to the same meetings and conferences every year,” said Mark Paschke, research associate dean for Warner College. “We wanted to spark transdisciplinarity by encouraging faculty and students to attend a conference outside of their discipline, something that they wouldn’t normally consider.”

The grants support goals within Warner College’s new strategic plan, “New Heights of Impact.” The plan aims to support and grow the transdisciplinary work that sets Warner College apart from its peers in education, research and engagement.

Proposals for travel grants are due Jan. 19  for full consideration. Proposals for projects to address wicked problems are due March 8. Eligible applicants can apply via the Warner College Intranet under the OVPR and Warner Research Funding Opportunities area.