Stanford University
AC-10: Support for Research

RISING ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERS PROGRAM
http://woods.stanford.edu/ideas/rising-environmental-leaders-program.html
The Rising Environmental Leaders Program provides graduate students and postdoctoral scholars with leadership and communications skills as well as guidance on how to use those skills and their research for the greatest impact. Participants are also extended professional development opportunities including introductions to global leaders from government, NGOs, think tanks and business.

GOLDMAN HONORS PROGRAM
https://woods.stanford.edu/educating-leaders/education/goldman-honors-program
The Goldman Honors Program supports undergraduate students who want to write environmental theses. The program brings upper division undergraduate students from Stanford University's schools of Humanities and Sciences, Engineering, and Earth Sciences together into small group seminars to analyze important environmental problems. Requirements include three quarters of seminar participation, the preparation of an honors thesis, and, where relevant, field study related to the student's thesis topic.

UNDERGRADUATE INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH PROGRAM
http://woods.stanford.edu/uirp.php
The Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Program from the Woods Institute for the Environment provides full- and part-time student stipends to Stanford undergraduates to conduct interdisciplinary environmental research during the summer term. Faculty are welcome to apply on behalf of undergraduates at all levels and from all departments. Funding priority goes to Woods Institute fellows, lecturers and affiliated faculty. Students wishing to initiate a project will need to approach a faculty member who is willing to apply on the student's behalf.

DC BOOT CAMP
https://woods.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/documents/2014-DC-Boot-Camp-Agenda.pdf
The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment’s DC Boot Camp is a one-week hands-on program where graduate students learn the “do’s and don’ts” of funding environmental research and how to have impact in the policy environment of Washington DC. Twenty graduate students and postdocs garner first-hand knowledge about national policy development, partnership building and public service, leadership and communications skills and how to use those skills and their research for the greatest impact.

SES SUMMER UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH PROGRAM
http://pangea.stanford.edu/faculty-research/undergraduate-research/summer-research-program
Through the School of Earth Sciences Summer Undergraduate Research Program, undergraduate students work with faculty, post-docs, and graduate students throughout the School of Earth Sciences. Their research projects span the breadth of the four departments (Energy Resources Engineering, Environmental Earth System Science, Geophysics, and Geological and Environmental Sciences), interdisciplinary programs (Earth Systems and IPER), and associated research institutes (Precourt Energy Efficiency Center, Woods Institute for the Environment, and the Carnegie Institute). The Summer Undergraduate Research Program in the School of Earth Sciences has been in place since 2001, and many undergraduate students have been involved over that time.

THE GREEN FUND
http://sustainable.stanford.edu/green_fund
The Stanford Student Green Fund provides grants for innovative student-driven projects designed to create a more sustainable campus. A total of $30,000 per academic year is available to fund projects. Projects must aim to reduce Stanford's ecological footprint, have a clearly defined, measurable outcome, incorporate publicity, education or outreach, and include direct student involvement. Projects funded in the 2013-2014 academic year include Graduate School of Business Students designing a "Climate Act @ GSB" initiative, a Students for a Sustainable Stanford (SSS) program piloting environmentally friendly cleaning practices in student residences, the purchase and installation of a water bottle filling station on campus, and several projects run by R&DE Student Housing interns.

MEL LANE GRANT PROGRAM
https://woods.stanford.edu/mel-lane-program.php
Mel Lane Student Program Grants are provided to student driven and managed environmental projects that make a measureable impact on an issue through action or applied research. Preference is given to projects that focus on environmental sustainability within one of the following topic areas: built environment, climate, food security and supply, natural capital, ocean and coasts, public health, sustainable development and water. In addition, projects should involve Stanford students and provide an educational experience for students and a broader community. Proposals are accepted twice a year during fall and winter terms. The institute has an annual budget of $10,000 to support projects.

WOODS INSTITUTE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
The Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Institute for the Environment (http://woods.stanford.edu/) harnesses the expertise and imagination of leading academics and decision-makers to create practical solutions for people and the planet. The Institute played a critical role in Stanford’s Initiative on the Environment and Sustainability, and is one of just a few campus Institutes given the ability to appoint faculty Fellows. Faculty interested in conducting sustainability research can become Fellows at the Woods Institute either in addition to departmental status or as an exclusive appointment.

In addition, the Woods Institute manages a special research grant program for sustainability projects. Environmental Venture Projects (EVP) are seed grants awarded annually to Stanford faculty for innovative research that focuses on finding solutions to key environmental and sustainability challenges, such as protecting endangered species in California to delivering clean drinking water in Africa. Since 2004, the Stanford Woods Institute has awarded over $6M in EVP grants to 44 interdisciplinary research teams from all seven Stanford schools and 26 departments for projects in the United States and abroad.

For more information, please visit:
https://woods.stanford.edu/research/environmental-venture-projects

PRECOURT INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY (PIE)
The Precourt Institute for Energy (PIE) engages in a broad-ranging, interdisciplinary program of research and education on energy – applying fundamental research to the problem of supplying energy in environmentally and economically acceptable ways, using it efficiently, and facing the behavioral, social, and policy challenges of creating new energy systems for the U.S. and the world.

PIE serves as the hub of a broad and deep network of experts from various science, technology, behavioral, and policy disciplines who are working independently and collaboratively to solve the world's most pressing energy problems.

PIE's mission is to advance the goal of major and rapid energy transformations. PIE provides funding and associated support for cutting-edge energy research, creates and maintains avenues for effective communication and intellectual exchange among scholars and others seeking energy solutions, and develops energy-literate leaders and communities through educational programs and the dissemination of research results.

For more information, please visit:
http://pie.stanford.edu/

Stanford places a strong emphasis on multidisciplinary work by its faculty. Multidisciplinary research is one of the central themes of the Stanford Challenge, a university-wide program introduced in 2006 to tackle the most pressing global challenges of the next century. Through the Stanford Challenge, hundreds of millions of dollars have been raised to support multidisciplinary research, with funds going towards Professorships and Faculty Support, Programmatic and Research Support, and new multidisciplinary facilities. More than 100 new faculty positions and more than 300 new graduate fellowships were endowed.

For more information on multidisciplinary research and the success of the Stanford Challenge, please visit:
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/february/stanford-challenge-concludes-020812.html

Since 1990, Stanford has allowed selected Interdisciplinary Institutes on campus to make their own faculty appointments and promotions. The university states, “while reaffirming the value of coupling academic appointments in policy centers and institutes to faculty appointments in existing academic departments, it was recognized that interdisciplinary policy centers may have needs not met by regular professorial appointments in existing departments.” These Interdisciplinary Institutes include the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford, the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and the Woods Institute for the Environment. Each of these institutes can appoint Senior Fellows and Center Fellows, both of which are members of the Academic Council, regardless of any other appointments. These fellows can be faculty in their own department or can be completely appointed by that institute, giving institutes the freedom to promote anyone without university restrictions.

Relevant excerpts from the Faculty Handbook include:
http://facultyhandbook.stanford.edu/ch2.html#joint
http://facultyhandbook.stanford.edu/ch2.html#senior

Stanford University Libraries maintains extensive collections to support sustainability research. Librarians regularly support classes and research in this area, including the following examples:
http://library.stanford.edu/guides/planet-edge-rhetoric-sustainable-energy-0
http://library.stanford.edu/guides/sustaining-action-research-analysis-and-writing-public
http://library.stanford.edu/guides/writing-nature-discourses-ecology-culture-and-technology
http://library.stanford.edu/guides/staying-cool-hot-planet-environmental-rhetoric-changing-world

Librarians develop research guides to assist researchers in sustainability fields:
http://library.stanford.edu/guides/green-building-resources

In addition, the libraries have occasionally hosted presentations with a sustainability theme, including this presentation by Martin McDonough:
http://library.stanford.edu/blogs/special-collections-unbound/2013/05/upcycle-beyond-sustainability-designing-abundance