| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 68.18 |
| Liaison | Ezra Small |
| Submission Date | Feb. 5, 2015 |
| Executive Letter | Download |
University of Massachusetts Amherst
AC-10: Support for Research
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Karen
Hayes Director, Strategic Communications and Outreach University Relations |
Does the institution have a program to encourage student sustainability research that meets the criteria for this credit?:
A brief description of the institution’s program(s) to encourage student research in sustainability:
We offer multiple Research Experiences for Undergraduate programs each summer, several of which focus on sustainability research. Examples include the Collaborative Undergraduate Research in Energy (CURE) program http://www.chem.umass.edu/masscrest/reu/index.html and the Five College Coastal and Marine Sciences program http://www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/marine/internships/. These are stipend programs.
ICONS. Students in our Interdisciplinary Concentrations in the Sciences (ICoNS) program are offered research mentorships by our tenure system professors. ICons has specific tracks for Renewable Energy, Clean Water and Climate Change. The iCons (Integrated Concentration in Science) program at UMass Amherst facilitated recent student internships at Waters Corp. in Milford. The students conducted research on controlling microbiological growth in order to insure sustainable water systems.http://www.cns.umass.edu/icons-program/
iCons Interns at Waters Corporation
Undergraduate Research in Sustainability Award
Papers, theses, design and multimedia projects, and fine art that present research into a sustainability topic are eligible to be nominated for the Undergraduate Research in Sustainability Award. The first prize recipient receives a $1,000 scholarship and two second place winners receive $500 scholarships. Applicants must be nominated by a UMass Amherst faculty member.
The website URL where information about the student research program is available:
Does the institution have a program to encourage faculty sustainability research that meets the criteria for this credit?:
A brief description of the institution’s program(s) to encourage faculty research in sustainability:
The UMass Science and Technology Initiatives Fund, the Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property Technology Development Fund and the Creative Economy Initiatives Fund support UMass Amherst research and activities with high potential for discoveries and breakthroughs in areas important to the Commonwealth, including clean energy.
EXAMPLES
2014 S&T Fund winners Robert DeConto and Raymond Bradley of the geosciences department received $104,000 for the Center for Computational Climatology and Paleoclimatology, an effort that brings together academic scientists and engineers, industrial researchers and users of high-performance computing resources to the issue of climate change. The grant will help develop a center for climate-related computation and numerical modeling of value to the Commonwealth and contribute to the field of climate science by applying “Big Data” computational analysis, modeling, data mining and visualization to climate change research.
Creative Economy Fund
Flavia Montenegro-Menezes of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning
was awarded a $27,000 2013 Creative Economy award for her project, “Participatory Asset Mapping: Sustainable Planning and Development in Holyoke,” which is developing a tested and transferable approach to integrating locally unique cultural assets into urban and regional planning.
Commercial Ventures Tech Development Fund
Chemistry professor Dhandapani Venkataraman
received a $25,000 CVIP grant for his study of "Organic Photovoltaic Devices Based on Water-based Nanoparticle Dispersions,"
a method to fabricate efficient organic photovoltaic devices from aqueous dispersions of polymer nanoparticles. His method greens the process, by replacing aromatic solvents in the current fabrication processes with water. The funding supports fabrication of prototype flexible organic photovoltaic cells from these dispersions.
Endowed Chair in Renewable Energy
$2.5 million from the state Department of Energy Resources will be used to fund an endowed chair in renewable energy located in the UMass Amherst College of Engineering. The chair will conduct research in renewable energy innovation that will cut energy use, create jobs and protect the environment.
Water Resources Research Center Sponsored Research
The Water Resources Research Center supports faculty research and training of graduate students on water resources issues of state, regional, and national importance. Current sponsored research is focused on topics including best practices for flood mitigation, the uses of biofiltration facilities to process urban storm water runoff and protect water supplies, and refining remediation technologies for landfill leachate contaminants. http://wrrc.umass.edu/
SIEF grants
The UMass Amherst Libraries hosts the Sustainability, Innovation and Engagement Fund (SIEF) which was established in August 2013 to foster a strong culture of sustainability on our campus by incentivizing students, faculty, and staff involvement. Any student faculty, staff, student group, academic class, or faculty/staff and student team can propose a sustainability project. http://www.umass.edu/sustainability/get-involved/sustainability-innovation-engagement-fund
Interdisciplinary Research Centers and Institutes
The campus hosts a number of sustainability-focused research centers and institutes whose main focus is to encourage and support faculty pursuit of sustainability research. The campus's office of Research and Engagement provides numerous ways in which it supports federal,state and private support for research in these centers.Many of these centers and their success stories, are listed on the following websites:
https://www.umass.edu/researchnext/gateway/environment
https://www.umass.edu/researchnext/gateway/energy-and-materials
The website URL where information about the faculty research program is available:
Has the institution formally adopted policies and procedures that give positive recognition to interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary research during faculty promotion and/or tenure decisions?:
A brief description or the text of the institution’s policy regarding interdisciplinary research:
Since 2007 the campus has included "cluster hiring" as a regular part of its faculty hiring practices. These purpose of these is to hire faculty positions across academic departments for emerging, interdisciplinary opportunities. Cluster hires were part of the "Amherst 250 Plan" to support strategic faculty hires that will help maintain the campus as a nationally competitive public research university. Additionally, academic units across campus assess interdisciplinary research for tenure and promotion individually.
The campus's current strategic plan, "Innovation and Impact:
Renewing the Promise of the Public Research University" states that "mechanisms to incubate interdisciplinary research should be developed" including "faculty hiring efforts to build interdisciplinary clusters" which will build capacity for research and teaching over time. http://www.umass.edu/chancellor/sites/default/files/strategic-planning/Executive-Summary.pdf
The website URL where information about the treatment of interdisciplinary research is available:
Does the institution provide ongoing library support for sustainability research and learning that meets the criteria for this credit?:
A brief description of the institution's library support for sustainability research and learning:
The UMass Amherst Libraries launched the national-award winning Sustainability Fund in 2012. The Fund allows for the acquisition of sustainability-related books, journals, DVDs, and other materials. High-end subscription databases such as GreenR, PolicyMap, BioOne and Sustainability Watch were also added to the collections through use of the Fund. Campus individuals and groups organizing campus programs may request funding for outside speakers. In the past few years, the Fund has helped fund the appearance of prestigious speakers such as Annie Leonard, Majora Carter and Robert Bullard.
The UMass Amherst Libraries maintains several online research guides on topics such as Sustainability, Climate Change, Permaculture, Green Building and Infrastructure, and Food Systems. The Sustainability Studies Librarian offers information instruction to classes as well as by individual consultation. The Sustainability Curriculum Initiative is a mini-grant program that partners librarians and faculty for a one-year experience, including monthly group meetings to discuss the integration of sustainability library resources into the curriculum. These groups are highly interdisciplinary, allowing for cross pollination of ideas across campus. Sustainable UMass makes use of the Library's Institutional Repository (ScholarWorks) to preserve and disseminate campus output related to sustainability.
The website URL where information about the institution's library support for sustainability is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.