A focus on science, engineering, and education for sustainability

Abstract

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.