Southern New Hampshire University
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research

SNHU incentivizes research into sustainability through a partnership between Undergraduate Research (UGR) Day and several academic departments which provides scholarships for winning students. While open to all students, specific partnerships with the Environmental Science, English, and Honors departments encourage students from SNHU and other local universities present original research in either presentation or poster form. These courses introduce the research methodology and allow students to identify areas of interest for further investigation. The top projects are recognized through a cash prize and publication in our SNHU Undergraduate Research Journal. Students who collect data from primary sources are required to gain approval from the Institutional Research Board. Undergraduate Research Day has been a regular event each April since 2012 and includes over 100 students presenting each year. The rewards for participating vary upon the students' research quality and scoring from the judges. Quality and thorough research projects may win a scholarship cash prize or a chance to be published in the Undergraduate Research Journal.

SNHU encourages faculty research through a research grant process, teaching partnerships, and allocation of funds for conference participation. The research grant process is a competitive application open to all faculty to receive a cash payment in the equivalent of a one-course release. Among the factors considered in the grant process, includes a contribution to campus, community, and students as well as a defined plan to share results with a larger audience. Examples of sustainability-related projects include an examination of materials used in fashion design amongst other topics. Teaching partnerships are given an additional stipend to collaborate with faculty from another department. As a result, several sustainability-themed classes were built including a culinary course on sustainable food sourcing and the implementation of sustainability projects within organizations. Finally, the university awards funds for two different categories of conference travel, based on student or professional development. Through a competitive proposal process, money has been awarded to travel to AASHE, Post Landfill Annual Conference, Second Nature Leadership Conference, and other local sustainability events (NHBSR, Harvard Sustainability, etc.). Most winners of the funds are those that are presenting research at the conference such as professors at the AASHE conference in the Fall of 2018. Criteria for winning the funds include a written proposal and a need based assesment on the ROI of the conference.

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