TRAINING THE NEXT GENERATION OF CLIMATE RESILIENCE PROFESSIONALS

Addressing risks posed by changing climate conditions in coastal areas demands innovative strategies that intersect multiple disciplines including engineering, ecology, communication, climate science, and community planning. To be usable, it also requires engaging local stakeholders in the development of research questions, the assessment of implications of research for planning and policy, and the communication of research results. Yet traditional, disciplinary programs are poorly configured to train the workforce needed to assess coastal climate risk and to develop and deploy integrated strategies for increasing coastal climate resilience. Coastal Climate Risk & Resilience (C2R2) is an NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) at Rutgers University working to prepare the workforce that will build coastal resilience in the face of climate risks. C2R2 trains graduate students from throughout the University who conduct research to better integrate all the elements of coastal systems and to engage effectively with local coastal stakeholders. In this presentation, we will discuss the successes and challenges to implementing this transdisciplinary program at a large University, focusing on the interaction as well as the benefits for the student and faculty participants from evaluation and student learning outcome data.