Emory University
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research

The Office of Sustainability Initiatives Incentives Fund

The Office of Sustainability Incentives Funds are awarded each fall to support research, campus-based projects, and the development of new rituals to promote sustainability and social justice on Emory’s campuses. Faculty, staff, and students from Emory University and Emory Healthcare are eligible to apply. Priority is given to proposals in the areas of waste, sustainable food, energy, alternative transportation, and connection to "place." Funds may be used for supplies, materials, publicity, and travel costs. Grantees are responsible for creating and managing a project budget, managing all financial transactions, and maintaining documentation for all grant-approved purchases and work. Research and projects must be carried out on campus. From 2021-2023, OSI awarded $48,956 in Incentives Fund grants.

The Sustainability Minor Capstone

Students who minor in sustainability must carry out a capstone project on sustainability research for which they receive three credits. Capstone projects may be research, an internship, a campus project, volunteer work, or other practicum experience. Students are supervised by a faculty member and incentivized by course credit and mentorship. 

Environmental Science Research for Environmental Science Majors

The Department of Environmental Sciences encourages and supports student research, many of which focus on issues related to sustainability. Undergraduate students may begin exploring research as early as their first year with faculty in the department. Resources to support undergraduate research are available through departmental funding. The Lester and Turner Grants are awarded to undergraduate majors and graduate students in Environmental Sciences to support research, enhance educational opportunities, and encourage environmental scholarship and leadership. 

Department of Anthropology Research

Students in anthropology are encouraged to get involved in research early in their Emory careers. Students may participate in research through the Undergraduate Research Programs, by enrolling ANT 497 Directed Research for academic credit, or they may seek funding for independent research. Students may choose to focus their research on various areas of specialization, such as the global development and sustainability cluster. This cluster focuses on issues such as inequality, poverty, food insecurity, and climate change.

Turner Environmental Law Clinic

Students at Emory School of Law’s Turner Environmental Law Clinic are incentivized to study sustainability by course credit and mentorship. Students work closely with a faculty member and gain hands-on experience working in environmental law. During the reporting years, the work of the Clinic supported Emory’s partnership development with the Conservation Fund to start the Working Farms Fund program. Additionally, students in the Clinic answered research questions about the validity of carbon sequestration calculations about soils managed with different sustainable practices and with different crops planted. Incentives are provided via a two-year paid fellowship.

Research at the Rollins School of Public Health

The Rollins School of Public Health offers a variety of degree programs including a Master of Public Health (MPH), Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH), Environmental Sciences and Environmental Health 4+1 (BS/MPH), and dual-degree programs. Public health students often participate in sustainability research. Research in the Rollin’s Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health spans a wide range of environmental issues related to sustainability, including climate change, air pollution, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). Sustainability research at the Rollins School of Public Health is incentivized by course credit, funding opportunities, and mentorship. 

Master’s in Development Practice

The Emory Master’s in Development Practice (MDP) is a program in the Laney Graduate School. Students are highly encouraged to incorporate sustainability into their studies. Students gain experience in the field by participating in two summer field practicums and internships throughout the year focused on issues of sustainable development. Research in sustainability is incentivized by course credit, mentorships, and internships.

Population Biology, Ecology, and Evolution Graduate Program

Emory's Population Biology, Ecology, and Evolution (PBEE) Graduate Program offers graduate students a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the mechanisms that underlie the diversity and complexity of life. We study these fundamental biological processes in a wide range of organisms, from viruses to humans. Our program's overarching goal is to provide our students with a broad set of skills that will allow them to pursue successful careers in teaching and research. Students gain a broad knowledge of population biology through our core curriculum and first-year research rotations. The unifying focus of our program is on quantitative methods that can be applied to a wide range of problems. Such research is incentivized by funding, mentorships, and course credit.

Undergraduate Research Programs

The Undergraduate Research Program (URP) supports undergraduate research and scholarship opportunities, allowing students to participate in meaningful research early on in their academic careers. URP supports research through grants, faculty-student research partnerships, and one-on-one advising. Summer research stipends are provided through URP’s 10-week Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program. The SURE program allows undergraduate research fellows to conduct full-time independent research under the direction of a faculty member. SURE participants receive a housing award, hands-on research experience, mentorship, networking opportunities, and graduate school preparation.  Many students take advantage of the URP’s research and funding opportunities to engage in sustainability-focused research. Past theses for the URP include:

• Crop Protection Inputs and Meteorological Conditions: Limiting Greenhouse Gas Emissions 
• Determinants of Sustainability in Community Development: Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities
• From Cotton to Clothing: Unpacking Sustainability in the Fashion Industry
• A Recipe for Sustainability: Serving Plant-Based Food to Decrease Greenhouse Gas Emissions at U.S. Colleges and Universities

Scholarly Inquiry and Research Experience (SIRE) Program

The SIRE Program is a hands-on research experience designed for undergraduate students who are entering research for the first time. Students in the humanities, arts, social sciences, and sciences are connected with faculty mentors who are seeking research assistants. Students work closely on a faculty-led research project for a full academic year to gain the skills of an effective researcher. Students are compensated through a work-study stipend or course credit. This program can place undergrads under professors working in the field of sustainability or humanitarian projects.

The Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry Fellowships

The Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry provides a variety of grants to faculty and students for various projects in the humanities, including issues of social justice, equity, and diversity. Among the current Undergraduate Humanities Honors Fellows is a student majoring in Anthropology and minoring in Sustainability. Their honors thesis is titled "The Lives of Urban Agriculturalists: Oral History and Exhibition as Anthropological Research Method." Their thesis works with the Emory Oral History Program to create an oral history collection from interviews with urban agriculturalists in Atlanta and will culminate in a multi-media art exhibition that represents the collection's findings.

The Global Health Institute Individual Field Scholars Program

The Global Health Institute Individual Field Scholars Program promotes student learning by linking academic study with practical experience in the field. Individual scholars conduct short-term global health projects focusing on underserved and/or vulnerable populations around the world. Applicants can conduct projects either abroad or within the United States, however, they must demonstrate a significant need in the population with whom they propose to work. Scholarship recipients receive up to $3,000 to conduct their projects. Recent projects include: Assessing Disaster Preparedness of the Clarkston Refugee Community; Structural Health: Immigrants, the State, & the Built Environment in Sao Paulo, 1870-Present; and Affordable mHealth Technology for Point-of-Use Water Quality Testing in Guatemala.

The Office of Sustainability Initiatives Incentives Fund

The Office of Sustainability Incentives Funds are awarded each fall to support research, campus-based projects, and the development of new rituals to promote sustainability and social justice on Emory’s campuses. Faculty, staff, and students from Emory University and Emory Healthcare are eligible to apply. Priority is given to proposals in the areas of waste, sustainable food, energy, alternative transportation, and connection to "place." Funds may be used for supplies, materials, publicity, and travel costs. Grantees are responsible for creating and managing a project budget, managing all financial transactions, and maintaining documentation for all grant-approved purchases and work. Research and rituals must be carried out on campus. From 2021-2023, OSI awarded $48,956 in Incentives Fund grants.

The Piedmont Project

The Piedmont Project is an interdisciplinary summer development program that gives faculty members and graduate students the tools to integrate sustainability and environmental issues into the classroom. Key efforts for the project include workshops, the development of a new course or module that incorporates sustainability or environmental issues, and cross-disciplinary dialogue. These sometimes result in research collaborations and grants as well as teaching innovation. Faculty and graduate students are provided a small stipend for participation in the program.

The University Research Committee (URC) 

The University Research Committee (URC), oversees a competitive, annual research grant program to support research and creative projects in fields with limited external funding, or to explore new areas of research that are likely to attract future external support. Eligible applicants are regular, continuing full-time faculty of Emory University. URC grants are open to eligible applicants from all Emory schools and disciplines. URC eligibility follows criteria for “full-time faculty” as defined within each school. Many sustainability-related projects have benefited from the URC’s support. Proposals are reviewed by five broad discipline-based subcommittees. Recent awards include: Investigating the Burden of Antibiotic Resistance Among Atlanta Residents Through Community-Based Wastewater Surveillance; Born in Blood explores the violent making of the modern world that witnessed the emergence of humans as a global geophysical force; and Agricultural Adaptation to Changing Climate in Georgia.

Center for Faculty Development and Excellence (CFDE)

The Center for Faculty Development and Excellence supports faculty in research and scholarship, teaching and pedagogy, and professional development. CDFE offers funding through the Public Scholarship Advancement Fund and Scholarly Writing & Publishing Fund to help faculty advance their work as scholars. Grants are also available to support faculty teaching. The Community-Engaged Learning Grant can be used to incorporate service-learning into courses, which has been used by faculty for sustainability-related efforts. CDFE funding has been used to support work in climate change and sustainable food studies. 

The Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry Fellowships 

The Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry provides a variety of grants to faculty and students for various projects in the humanities, including issues of social justice, equity, and diversity.

HERCULES Exposome Research Center

HERCULES  represents a significant financial investment to build and support environmental health research at Emory and Georgia Tech. HERCULES is one of about 20 centers across the country dedicated to supporting all aspects of environmental health research at their home institutions and to developing collaborations with researchers across the country.  The environment, broadly defined, plays a major role in health and disease, but has been underrepresented in biomedical and public health research. The exposome provides a conceptual framework to better incorporate the environmental component into the study of disease and health. The vision of HERCULES is to serve as an intellectual hub in the advancement and translation of exposome research to improve human health. HERCULES provides key infrastructure and expertise to develop and refine new tools and technologies. The Integrated Health Sciences Facility Core and the Environmental Health Data Sciences Core work together to develop and apply needed tools and expertise to assess the exposome. Through a Pilot Project program, it supports the development of new ideas and approaches by its investigators. Its Career Development Program supports new investigators as they begin their research careers as well as more experienced investigators to gain additional skills.  Importantly, they also recognize the critical importance of their community partners. Through their Community Engagement Core, they interface with local communities and stakeholders to inform our research and share their findings.

Interdisciplinary scholarship is specifically listed in the Emory College Tenure and Promotion Principles and Procedures Appendix on digital scholarship. When asked about the recognition of interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary research in tenure and promotion proceedings, Emory’s Senior Associate Dean for Faculty verified the accuracy of Emory’s previously approved STARS explanation that scholarship is evaluated based on its advancement of knowledge and is not restricted by departmental or disciplinary boundaries. Reviews of candidates whose research is interdisciplinary tend to be expanded by seeking input from experts from multiple fields, including those outside the department or outside the school/college, as appropriate. The promotion and tenure process has shown that Emory values and rewards research efforts that impact multiple fields and cross disciplinary boundaries. The university-wide committee that advises the president and provost on promotion and tenure issues is itself multi-disciplinary and seeks additional input in its decisions from a broad spectrum of experts to ensure that interdisciplinary research is adequately reviewed. Special mention is made of encouragement for interdisciplinary research in the Principles for Promotion and Tenure, but Emory's size and strong history of support for interdisciplinarity in hiring, retention, and funded programs speaks for itself. 

Emory's latest T&P principles and procedures document can be found here:

Several specialized librarians cooperate to build the university’s collections in sustainability-related fields. There is a dedicated Environmental Studies librarian, as well as Anthropology and other related fields. Collections in Theology, Law,  and Public Health also support sustainability-related teaching and research.

Specific Library Resource Guides Currently online:

Anthropology Librarian: Lori Jahnke

ANT 190: People, Nature, Place: Anthropology & the Environment

Environmental Sciences Librarian: Kristan Majors

• Ecology
• Sustainability
• Mvskoke (Creek) Language & Ecology
• Environmental Justice
• Energy Resources
• Emory, its Environmental & Sustainability History
• Environmental Honors & Independent Research Guide
• Environmental Sciences Films
• International Environmental Policy
• U.S. Environmental Policy
• WaterHub & Wastewater management

All data reported in this section are from September 2020--August 2023.