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

SNHU incentivizes research into sustainability through a partnership between the Undergraduate Research Committee and several academic departments. The Undergraduate Research Committee hosts an annual Undergraduate Research Day. While open to all students, specific partnerships with the Environmental Science, Biological Science, Mathematics, English, and Business departments, as well as the Honors Program,  encourage students from SNHU to present original research in the form of a presentation, poster, or prototype. The faculty that serve as research mentors or embed undergraduate research in their classes introduce the research methodology and allow students to identify areas of interest for further investigation. Students who collect data that involves human subjects 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 students gain invaluable skills for their future careers or graduate and professional schools and are able to publish their work in the Undergraduate Research Day Conference Proceedings through the Shapiro Library Academic Archives. 

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.). 

Shapiro Library has many electronic and print resources that are helpful in linking research on practices and theories in sustainability and environmental issues with the corporate world. Students can examine topics of energy-related issues, efficiencies in business, regulatory requirements, and many more topics with practical relation to contemporary issues through the resource content of the Shapiro Library's collections and databases.

Information provided by Ellen Phillips, Director of Open Educational Resources and Intellectual Property