| Overall Rating | Silver |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 64.57 |
| Liaison | Sherri Mason |
| Submission Date | June 14, 2023 |
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
3.00 / 4.00 |
Sherri
Mason Director of Sustainability School of Science |
Does the institution have an ongoing program to encourage students in multiple disciplines or academic programs to conduct sustainability research?:
A brief description of the student sustainability research program:
Does the institution have a program to encourage academic staff from multiple disciplines or academic programs to conduct sustainability research?:
A brief description of the faculty sustainability research program:
Penn State provides seed grant funds to faculty that are specifically targeted to interdisciplinary teams and research focused within the sustainability sphere. These program include:
- the Institutes for Energy and the Environment (IEE) runs annual seed grant competitions under their thematic foci - all of which have sustainability relevance: Climate and Ecosystem Change, Future Energy Supply, Health and the Environment, Smart Energy Systems, Water and Biogeochemical Cycles;
- the Materials Research Institute (MRI) seed grant competition; and
- the Smeal College of Business annual Sustainability Research Grants.
In the last three years, these distributed seed grant programs have invested over $1.5 million to support over 60 new sustainability research projects.
Has the institution published written policies and procedures that give positive recognition to interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary research during faculty promotion and/or tenure decisions?:
A copy of the promotion or tenure guidelines or policies:
The promotion or tenure guidelines or policies:
Penn State's Administrative Guidelines for Promotion and Tenure state, under the heading of Assessing The Scholarship of Research and Creative Accomplishments, that: "It is expected that units encourage and support collaborative and interdisciplinary research and that units will develop methods to assess these activities." (see Part II,D on page 6)
https://www.vpfa.psu.edu/files/2019/07/2019-2020-Administrative-Guidelines-Final.pdf
Does the institution have ongoing library support for sustainability research and learning?:
A brief description of the institution’s library support for sustainability research:
The Penn State University Libraries provide access to a plethora of materials and searchable databases that support sustainability research including GreenFILE, Environment & Energy Newsletters, Ecology Abstracts, and many others. Examples of library resources can be found here:
https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/sustainable-development
Website URL where information about the institution’s support for sustainability research is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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.