Narrator: The Fulbright Regional Network for Applied Research, also known as the Fulbright NEXUS Program, is one of the newest components of the Fulbright Scholar Program. Building on Fulbright’s mission to promote mutual understanding between individuals and nations, Fulbright NEXUS brings together researchers, applied practitioners, members of civil society in the public and private sectors for a year of collaborative research that moves beyond theory and into practice. At its core, the Fulbright NEXUS program fosters innovative and multidisciplinary research to fight poverty and inequality in the United States and other Western Hemisphere nations. The first cohort of twenty NEXUS scholars spent the past year working in the areas of science, technology, innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainable energy under the guidance of lead scholar Walter Baethgen of the Earth Institute at Colombia University.

Dr. Walter Baethgen: NEXUS is unique in the sense that it’s trying to make possible that link between advances in science and technology and relevance for society.

Narrator: Combining a series of seminar meetings in Argentina, Mexico and Washington, D.C. with a research exchange in the region scholars cultivated partnerships with local, national and regional stakeholders, linking science and policy through innovative projects with long term, regional impact. From exploring alternative energy sources in the Yucatán, the Andes and Amazon basin, analyzing the real economic and social cost of climate change from the Caribbean to the Southern Cone, improving access to health care in Colombia and training future health care providers in Trinidad and Tobago, promoting smart growth and new technology in Chile, examining the laws that make environmental policy in Canada, changing the way people think about exports and agriculture in Argentina, adapting clean energy technology to meet the needs of local communities in Uruguay and Jamaica, to fostering safe and sustainable urban growth across the region.