Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 81.87
Liaison Rania Assariotaki
Submission Date Feb. 21, 2023

STARS v2.2

The American College of Greece
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Ourania Assariotaki
Director
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Student sustainability research incentives 

Does the institution have an ongoing program to encourage students in multiple disciplines or academic programs to conduct sustainability research?:
Yes

A brief description of the student sustainability research program:
The Center of Excellence in Sustainability has embarked on several projects involving sustainability through the use of student volunteers from several majors and student assistants from different backgrounds as we aim to highlight the multi- and inter-disciplinary approach to Sustainability, the later of which operate through the Work Study Program.
The International Honors Program is an example of a program encouraging multidisciplinarity. Emphasis on sustainability is given at the Greening the Campus course. Students have the opportunity to undertake sustainability-related research as part of the Honors Thesis.
More broadly, one of the aims of the International Honors Program, specified in the relevant Handbook and communicated to current and prospective students, is: To attract and produce students who are ethically-minded and socially-conscious: students who can appreciate the bigger picture of how their study of various issues in multiple disciplines is connected to broader, global concerns and values in relation to human development, cross-cultural dialogue, civic engagement and environmental awareness.
The Environmental Studies program focuses on sustainability and interdisciplinarity in teaching. Sustainability related research can be undertaken as part of the Capstone Project.
The Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies (ES) is an interdisciplinary program that provides the students with a sound background and skills, necessary to address the global environmental problems. The students thoroughly explore the current environmental conditions and the global concerns, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, population growth, degradation of natural resources, pollution, use of energy resources, and the way those issues affect the planet, the species and human societies. In this increasingly complex world, there is urgent need for sustainable solutions and for mitigation and adaptation options to address the global problems at multiple levels, environmental, social, economic, and political.


In addition, the Environmental Studies program, due to its nature and its strong connection with sustainability, students are encouraged to do sustainability research. The student projects in higher-level courses are focused around sustainability in different fields (e.g. water management, waste management, conservation, food resources, air quality, climate change, circular economy, sustainable cities, environmental policy, environmental justice, environmental health, environmental management etc.) Also, ES students may conduct sustainability research as part of their capstone projects; ES students are also engaged in research on campus sustainability in collaboration with ES instructors (e.g. green roof research) or the CES.

Faculty sustainability research incentives 

Does the institution have a program to encourage academic staff from multiple disciplines or academic programs to conduct sustainability research?:
Yes

A brief description of the faculty sustainability research program:
Support and guidance has been maintained by the Center of Excellence in Sustainability which, through its mission and operating essence aims to help publicize and communicate sustainability related activities and research.

Research, Technology & Innovation Network
As part of the ACG 150 strategic plan, the RTIN seeks to combine the in-house research and innovation (R&I) potential stemming from ACG’s faculty, schools, departments, institutes, centers, programs and labs with an external network of collaborators and innovation players (corporations, investors, start-up clusters and incubators, funding agencies, innovation and market fora and think-tanks, venture capital funds, standardization and regulatory authorities, legal counsels, sponsors and donors). The doors of RTIN are open to all ACG faculty, while it hosts a number of research fellows and members from ACG, as well as resident and visiting researchers that work on various research and innovation-oriented projects.

Virtually unlimited in theme and scope, the Network’s activities track the evolution of many science and technology (S&T) disciplines that shape our world. Some current areas that are addressed through the activities of current Deree and ALBA faculty include: information and communication technologies (next generation networks including the Internet-of-Things, data science, artificial intelligence, cyber security, etc.), optimization and operations research, economics and finance, marketing, business and management, biomedical science and e-health, psychology and cognitive science, visual arts, literature, philosophy, history and journalism.
The RTIN targets the generation of 100s of publications and patents, participation in 10s of projects and kicking off of several startup / collaborative industrial innovation activities in its first 5 years of operation.

With Greece’s gross domestic research expenditure at only 1.17%, we aim to help bring this figure closer to the EU average of 2.06% (and target of 3%) and to contribute to the generation of 10s of thousands of jobs and several billion Euros of annual turnover added to the Greek economy.
https://reports.aashe.org/tool/the-american-college-of-greece-deree-aghia-paraskevi/submission/7516/AC/research/AC-10/

Recognition of interdisciplinary, transdisciplnary and multi-disciplinary research 

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?:
Yes

A copy of the promotion or tenure guidelines or policies:
The promotion or tenure guidelines or policies:
There is an ongoing commitment of the College to multidisciplinary research. The college has funded several projects involving researchers from various disciplines. Moreover the Center of Excellence in Sustainability which is a collaborative initiative, operating under the Office of Public Affairs, brings together researchers and facilitates collaboration between disciplines, faculty, staff and students

Library support

Does the institution have ongoing library support for sustainability research and learning?:
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s library support for sustainability research:
All College libraries maintain materials for sustainability research. The Main campus library has subscriptions to all major sustainability committed and CSR publications and researchers have full access to all the major databases being is a member of the AMICAL Consortium, the American Library Association, OCLC and the National Network of Academic and Scientific Libraries.All members of the ACG community – including current students, faculty, staff and registered alumni – are welcome to use the library and to take advantage of its resources which include 129,000 books & 316,000 ebooks
12 million academic articles & many more from magazines and other periodicals
1 million digital images

Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the institution’s support for sustainability research is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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