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News Release

Last modified: Thursday, October 30, 2008

School of Public and Environmental Affairs offers sustainability research grants

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 30, 2008

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A new grant program at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs will provide opportunities for faculty members and students to develop externally funded research related to environmental sustainability.

SPEA Dean John Graham announced the Sustainability Research Development Grant program, which is an outgrowth of a broad-based initiative created by the IU Task Force on Campus Sustainability. It is in keeping with environmental science and sustainability priorities that IU President Michael A. McRobbie outlined in his Oct. 14, 2008, State of the University address.

"This program is a direct result of the findings laid out in the Campus Sustainability Report by the Task Force on Campus Sustainability," Graham said. "It provides the opportunity for students and faculty to apply their research in such a way that affirms our global leadership in the field of sustainability."

Graham worked to create the grant program with Michael Hamburger, co-chairman of the IU Task Force on Sustainability, professor of geological sciences and associate dean of the faculties.

"This new grant program couldn't appear at a better time," Hamburger said. "As Indiana University embarks on an ambitious new sustainability initiative, this grant opportunity promises to catalyze new, interdisciplinary faculty and student research on sustainability that wouldn't otherwise be possible."

Under the program, up to five $10,000 grants are available for the 2008-09 academic year to support innovative, high-quality research on sustainability that can compete for external funding in the national arena.

Sustainability research covers environmental science, public policy, social science and other approaches to address issues such as resource stewardship, assessment and mitigation of the environmental impacts of human activity, and institutional and societal responses to environmental challenges.

Faculty and students from IU Bloomington and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis are eligible to apply for the awards, but each proposal must include at least one faculty member or student from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Award recipients will be expected to:

• Develop new, collaborative lines of research with the potential to develop into externally funded research projects.
• Engage with other members of the university sustainability community.
• Submit a report on their work to the dean of SPEA at the end of the fall semester following the award.
• Produce a grant proposal for continuation of the research for submission to one or more federal or state research organizations, foundations or corporate sponsors.

For more information about the grant program and details on how to apply, see https://www.spea.indiana.edu. For information on sustainability initiatives at Indiana University, see https://www.indiana.edu/~sustain/.

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