Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 70.10
Liaison Fortino Morales
Submission Date March 5, 2021

STARS v2.2

University of California, Riverside
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Fortino Morales
Sustainability Officer
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

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:

There are a number of programs on campus to encourage sustainability research. These include:

UCOP Carbon Neutrality Initiative (CNI) Fellows Program: Each year, UC Riverside provides four fellowships ($4000 each) to four students to conduct research in sustainability based on an application process. These applications are reviewed, and the best four projects are selected for funding. In addition, there is a similar fellowship program in food sustainability.

UCR has an active Water Sense Integrative Graduate Education Research Training (IGERT) program: see https://watersense.ucr.edu/

UCR National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST) Graduate Fellows Program: Each year, UC Riverside provides 3 graduate students with fellowships to conduct sustainable transportation research ($20K each). In addition, NCST provides a single dissertation grant, to support graduate dissertation work at UCR in sustainable transportation ($20K). For more information, see
https://www.cert.ucr.edu/news/2020/06/29/2020-2021-national-center-sustainable-transportation-awardees

UCR Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT): Each year, UC Riverside provides over $40,000 in scholarships and awards to support research in sustainable energy, sustainable transportation, air quality, and climate change. These awards are provided at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. For more information, see http://www.cert.ucr.edu.

The EDGE Institute: On behalf of Mike Devirian, the UC Riverside EDGE Institute (Environmental Dynamics & Geo- Ecology) will support graduate students studying in areas related to global climate and environmental change and the associated changes to ecosystems. We will be awarded three $800 scholarships in 2017 and 2018. The scholarships can support any aspect of the student’s research, including fieldwork, conference attendance, or laboratory/computational expenses.
https://edge.ucr.edu/


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:

UCR National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST) Faculty Research Program: Each year, UC Riverside provides faculty with research funding to conduct sustainable transportation research ($80K per project, 3 projects per year). For more information, see https://www.cert.ucr.edu/news/2020/06/29/2020-2021-national-center-sustainable-transportation-awardees

The University of California’s (UCR’s) California Agriculture and Food Enterprise (CAFÉ) is a research catalyst initiative facilitating the integrative, multidisciplinary study of complex issues associated with agriculture, food and sustainability for the betterment of the health and well-being of humanity and the planet. To attain this goal, CAFÉ acts to both open communication and break down disciplinary barriers among UCR-based faculty, researchers, staff, administrators, and students to facilitate activities that lead to the creation of solutions. https://cafe.ucr.edu/

The Multidisciplinary Research Building (MRB) provides an innovative and collaborative approach to conducting research. In a first for UCR, the building was designed so research teams from different fields of science can share laboratory space and work collaboratively on solving problems using different approaches. One of the requirements for being able to move into this new research facility was to form an interdisciplinary research group. This adds to the picture of how the campus rewards faculty research that includes multiple disciplines. https://insideucr.ucr.edu/stories/2019/01/11/uc-riverside-opens-largest-research-facility-campus-mrb


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:
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The promotion or tenure guidelines or policies:

It is the policy of the University to evaluate objectively and thoroughly each candidate for appointment, promotion, or merit increase. Promotions and merit increases are not automatic, but are based on merit. APM 200: https://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/academic-personnel-policy/index.html

UC APM 210: https://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/_files/apm/apm-210.pdf

UC APM 220: https://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/_files/apm/apm-220.pdf

UCR’s Academic Personnel Office provides information to assist the campus in the academic advancement of faculty and other academic appointees. This brochure presents information about the process of advancement and promotion at the University of California, Riverside which should prove helpful in understanding the process and meeting its goals. It is not intended to replace either the Academic Personnel Manual or the annual UCR CALL but rather to underscore key aspects of the procedures in a more informal and interpretive manner. It aims to minimize misunderstanding of the process and its criteria and to assist faculty in meeting its expectations. https://academicpersonnel.ucr.edu/sites/g/files/rcwecm1261/files/2018-12/CNASAdvandPromoUCRiverside.pdf

UCR The Call 2020-2021: https://academicpersonnel.ucr.edu/the-call

The Office of Research and Economic Development has announced the continuation of the collaborative seed grant program. This grant program serves as a catalyst for UCR faculty to form new teams. It is intended to initiate new intellectual, multidisciplinary directions for faculty and to make UCR more competitive for multidisciplinary grants. Selection criteria for seed grants reward projects that create new relationships and synergies across schools, departments or centers.

https://www.bioeng.ucr.edu/news/2018/05/30/four-bioengineering-assistant-professors-receive-funding-2018-collaborative-seed


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:

The Water Resources Collections & Archives (WRCA) acquires, preserves, and provides access to materials that document water-related issues throughout the United States and beyond, with a particular emphasis on issues affecting the state of California. http://library.ucr.edu/wrca/

The UCR Library collects resources in environmental engineering supporting both coursework and research conducted by our students and faculty. This is a naturally interdisciplinary topic so resources from engineering, geosciences, and chemistry are commonly used. They offer subject-specific and general research educational services at the library and provide access to information from the UC Libraries System and beyond. https://library.ucr.edu/research-services/subject-guides/environmental-engineering-subject-guide

The UCR Library collects resources in environmental toxicology supporting both coursework and research conducted by our students and faculty. This is a naturally interdisciplinary subject so resources from biology, chemistry, environmental science, and medical sciences are used. They offer subject-specific educational services at the library and also provide access to information from the UC Libraries System and beyond. https://library.ucr.edu/research-services/subject-guides/environmental-toxicology-subject-guide

The UCR Library collects resources in gender and sexuality, women’s studies, feminism, and related interdisciplinary studies supporting coursework and research conducted by our students and faculty. We offer subject-specific and general research educational services at the library and provide access to information from the UC Libraries System and beyond. https://library.ucr.edu/research-services/subject-guides/gender-and-sexuality-studies-subject-guide

The UCR Library collects resources in the geosciences including geochemistry, seismology, paleontology, and climatology, supporting both coursework and research conducted by our students and faculty. We offer subject-specific and general research educational services at the library and provide access to information from the UC Libraries System and beyond. https://library.ucr.edu/research-services/subject-guides/geosciences-subject-guide

The UCR Library collects resources in film, cultural studies and media studies, as well as related interdisciplinary subjects such as censorship and the history of visual culture. We offer subject-specific and general research educational services at the library and provide access to information that includes the entire UC Libraries System and beyond. Media and Cultural Studies focuses an interdisciplinary lens on the analysis of the dynamic relationship between media and society with special emphasis on race, gender, class, sexuality, and ethnicity as well as political economy and globalization. Media literacies are essential for the making of engaged global citizens, capable of moving flexibly between the applied and the critical, the professional and the scholarly, the empirical and the theoretical. Our students critically engage in major debates about social and environmental justice within both global and local contexts. We also learn through practicing creative interventions in media ecologies--for example, creative, documentary, and ethnographic moving and still image-making; multimedia and digital production; critical fabulation and speculative fiction; and journalism. https://library.ucr.edu/research-services/subject-guides/media-and-cultural-studies-subject-guide

The UCR Library collects resources in political science and all subsidiary disciplines supporting both coursework and research conducted by our students and faculty. We offer subject-specific and general research educational services at the library and provide access to information from the UC Libraries System and beyond. https://library.ucr.edu/research-services/subject-guides/political-science-subject-guide


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

Credit prepared by Michelle Baron and revised by Chelsea Lee.


Credit prepared by Michelle Baron and revised by Chelsea Lee.

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