University of Alaska Fairbanks
ER-18: Sustainability Research Incentives

In the Spring of 2009 the students of UAF voted to have a $20 fee levied upon all students in the interests of sustainability. The fee is what is now the Student Initiative for Renewable Energy Now, otherwise called the SIREN fee. The SIREN fee was created with the specific intent that it operate quickly. The fee will retire in the Spring semester of 2020 after ten years of activity. With over 5,000 students funding this movement, there will be enough revenue to install alternative energy systems, encourage greener purchasing, establish sustainable programs and change the way we look at energy on the UAF campuses. The Review of Infrastructure, Sustainability and Energy (RISE) Board was created for the purpose of considering and creating proposals on how to use the monies generated by the SIREN fee to the benefit of all UAF students, location non-withstanding. The RISE board is made up of active students and faculty appointed by recognized departments and clubs. Members are tasked with the extensive scientific review of proposals, presentations of formal proposals, as well as maintaining budget transparency in an organized and insightful way. All proposals will be brought to a vote within this board. Students, faculty and staff from UAF can submit proposals. Issues include energy, transportation, purchasing, waste management, sustainable design, education and curriculum, food systems, social sustainability, and processes and institutions. Preference will be given to projects or programs which reduce UAF’s non-renewable energy consumption.

There are multiple incentives for sustainability research at UAF. Perhaps the top incentives are working in synergistic relationships with top research faculty at UAF, and the opportunity to share in grants with an interdisciplinary focus to do cutting edge sustainability research. For example, questions of sustainability for Alaska and the Circumpolar North are the focus of RAP, exploring this topic through an investigation of global-local interactions, up- and down-scale effects, important feedbacks, adaptive capacity, and critical thresholds of social-ecological change. Another example is the interdisciplinary graduate training program in Marine Ecosystem Sustainability in the Arctic and Subarctic (MESAS), which prepares professionals to solve problems arising at the interface between dynamic environmental and social systems. The International Arctic Research Center (IARC) serves our nation and the international arctic research community by building an integrated understanding of the Arctic, as a system, with clear and accurate conceptualization of the role of the Arctic in the broader global system. Located in the Syun-Ichi Akasofu Building, IARC was established in 1999 as a cooperative research institute supported by both the U.S. and Japanese governments. Funding comes from the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S. and from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. More than 20 international groups and more than 60 scientists are collaborating with IARC. These programs and others provide opportunities for faculty to participate in research and partnership networks across UAF and the state of Alaska. The close relationships with interdisciplinary research centers based out of UAF also provide opportunities for sharing funds and research networks for faculty.