New grant focuses on sustainability research

Full-time IU faculty and graduate students have until April 28 to apply for a campus-wide grant program organized through the Office of Sustainability.

The program, which is also sponsored by University Graduate School, College of Arts and Sciences, School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Center for Research in Energy and the Environment, supports “collaborative efforts of Indiana University graduate students and faculty to develop new, externally funded research programs related to research on sustainability,” according to its website.

Up to five grant awards are provided for the 2010-11 academic year, each of which is $10,000.

The funds are divided between graduate student fellowships worth up to $5,000 and faculty research fund awards or summer faculty fellowships. If multiple investigator awards are made, recipients will share the $10,000 award.

Director of Sustainability Bill Brown said in a release that the funding “will open up new doors for innovation as Indiana University seeks to become an international leader in this critically important area of sustainability research, curriculum and campus operations.”

Michael Hamburger, professor of Geological Sciences who also serves on the campus sustainability advisory board, said this year’s program is an outgrowth of an initiative started by SPEA last year, which examined topics including forest management in the United States, land-use patterns in Brazil and Honduras, and student transportation choices in Bloomington.

Based on the success of last year’s program, Hamburger said this year’s program intends to provide the seed money for sustainability research that could lead to externally funded research projects.
            
“We’re very excited about this new grant opportunity and hopeful that it will develop into a permanent part of IU’s research effort,” he said.

Hamburger said this year’s research competition will provide funds for five faculty-grad student collaborations in a variety of research projects related to sustainability.

These collaborations will include environmental science, public policy, social science research and other approaches directed toward resource stewardship, assessment and mitigation of environmental impacts of human activity, and institutional and societal response to environmental challenges.

Hamburger said the opportunity was special in several ways and encourages faculty and graduate students to participate.

“First, it emphasizes interdisciplinary research that brings together diverse academic disciplines that can contribute to global and local models of sustainability,” he said.
“Also, the structure of the grants rewards faculty-grad student collaboration. Third, it brings together a number of academic schools for a truly campus-wide effort that transcends normal institutional boundaries.”

And finally, he said, the program would provide a way for IU to catalyze research that could lead to major, externally funded research projects.

“Thus, this program may pay for itself over the course of a few years’ time,” Hamburger said.