English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Convergence — an integration of the knowledge, tools, and ways of thinking from the life and health sciences; physical, mathematical, and computational sciences; the engineering disciplines; the social and behavioral sciences; and the humanities to form a comprehensive framework for tackling scientific and societal challenges that exist at the interfaces of multiple fields – is a movement gaining traction in universities across the country. Industry sees the approach as critical to educating the 2020 workforce it needs to deliver the advanced technological products and services that will otherwise go uncommercialized without the enhanced workforce capabilities for which Convergence offers the blueprint. Introduction A new transformative research approach is gaining momentum in Washington. Convergence — an integration of the knowledge, tools, and ways of thinking from the life and health sciences; physical, mathematical, and computational sciences; the engineering disciplines...to form a comprehensive framework for tackling scientific and societal challenges that exist at the interfaces of multiple fields [1] – is a movement that has thrived for some time in academia, giving way to disciplines like synthetic biology, biological engineering, and is touted by some as the next generation concept to propel the field of nanotechnology [2]. As established scientific leaders Phillip Sharp and Robert Langer wrote for Science, “rather than bringing together practitioners from separate silos to provide skills, there is an increasing need to merge expertise that goes beyond the interdisciplinary inter section of fields to the emergence of new disciplines [3].” This approach is creating a new generation of scientists and researchers capable of speaking across disciplinary platforms in a way not possible in previous generations but still with deep expertise in one or, in some cases more than one discipline, in addition to working at the intersection of disciplines. While the federal funding agencies that support research and discovery are slowly catching on to this trend [4], academia continues to wrestle with embedding Convergence institutionally while maintaining the capability to train for deep disciplinary expertise. However, the industry members who will increasingly depend on these graduates to transform product lines for health, defense, environment, and security have not been fully engaged in the discussion. This is changing as Convergence reaches beyond the frontiers of academia and government and into the boardrooms of America’s largest firms. Calibrating this triad of engagement between government, industry and academia to the Convergence approach will allow enhanced system organization to enable novel solutions to grand societal challenges currently gathering dust at the intersections of disciplines and sectors. Motivation for ongoing scholarship on the convergence trend Over the past year, leadership at the National Academy of Sciences responded to the interest of their membership and the larger Science & Technology community in Convergence in several ways. To date, the National Research Council—the operating arm of the NAS—completed two exercises in this emerging approach; the first a study chaired by Joseph DeSimone of University of North Carolina that examined approaches for fostering Convergence in research institutions [7], and the second, a Summary Report from a meeting of the GovernmentUniversity-Industry-Research-Roundtable [8], which the authors of this document co-chaired. The National Research Council is continuing to engage in the discussions surrounding Convergence. Critical topics include a partnership with the Kavli Foundation to expand the dialogue on institutional policies that enable convergent research, a forthcoming study on social and behavioral science research on working in teams, Correspondence to: Amanda Arnold, Principal Associate Director; E-mail: amanda.arnold@tamu.edu

journal of translational science

Convergence: a transformative approach to advanced research at the intersection of life, physical sciences and engineering and enhanced university-industry partnerships