University of South Carolina
ER-18: Sustainability Research Incentives

The university has several programs to encourage student research in sustainability. These are offered in various formats to support undergraduate and/or graduate student efforts. -The Magellan Scholar program was created to enrich the academic experience of USC's undergraduates through research opportunities in all disciplines from science, technology, and medicine, to theatre, music, and art. By providing access to faculty mentoring relationships and a professional research experience, this program enables students to creatively explore their interests at a more in-depth level than can be attained in the classroom. The Magellan Scholar program provides opportunities for undergraduates to build a competitive edge in the job market. http://www.sc.edu/our/magellan.shtml . The Magellan program is a major outlet for top performing students to implement campus sustainability efforts and recent efforts included an edible orchard and a campus rain garden. - Discovery Day (an annual event for undergraduates at USC, all years, all disciplines) showcases students’ scholarly pursuits in and out of the classroom. Students present their experiences or findings from: • research/scholarly projects, • study abroad, • internships and co-ops, • leadership activities, • service-learning and community service, and • national fellowship competitions. Students have the opportunity to make poster, oral, creative, or artistic presentations as well as visual art displays. This includes theatrical, musical, or creative writing presentations. http://www.sc.edu/our/discovery.shtml . Sustainability related projects are identified by Sustainable Carolina and labeled in the program and at the presentation as “sustainability approved”. -Discovery Program: Discover is an 8-week, not-for-credit seminar aimed at connecting and developing relationships with faculty; understanding current issues related to ethics, intellectual property, and copyright laws; learning about opportunities for funding and showcasing research; and creating a plan for research during your college experience. http://www.sc.edu/our/discover.shtml Leadership Scholar Program: The program provides competitive grants to undergraduate students to research and implement projects on campus that promote leadership. Nearly half of the last round of grants were awarded to sustainability and included projects such as Eco Rep training, Green Leadership and a Carbon Neutral Athletic Event. http://www.sc.edu/provost/leadership/ -Student Sustainability Fund allows for a percentage of annual funds to support student research projects on campus focused on sustainability. http://www.cas.sc.edu/greenquad/SSF -Capstone Scholars and Honors College students all take on a senior research project that may include sustainability focused efforts. -Masters in Earth and Environmental Research Management offers a thesis or capstone option that allows students to focus their research on sustainability issues. -Engineering offers an Undergraduate Student NSF Research Experience that has a major thrust area of sustainable energy. http://www.che.sc.edu/centers/REU/ -Several courses require students to take on research and/or implementation projects specifically focused on sustainability to include Civil Engineering Senior Design Course and Sustainability Project Management.

The university offers several programs to encourage faculty research into sustainability: -The Student Sustainability Fund allows for a percentage of the funds to be dedicated to faculty led research projects on campus that are focused on sustainability. http://www.cas.sc.edu/greenquad/SSF -The Faculty Development Workshop to encourage sustainability in the curriculum is also intended to connect faculty and initiate relationships that will lead to interdisciplinary research. http://www.cas.sc.edu/greenquad/node/102 -The Environmental & Sustainability Program represents a wide range of synergistic disciplines, with over 100 affiliated faculty cutting across the Columbia and regional USC campuses. Interdisciplinary teams conduct research on complex problems related to sustainability, eco- and earth systems, climate change and weather, environmental risks and hazards, water resources, and society and the environment. It strongly encourages and promotes interdisciplinary research and works to connect researchers from across the campus and the country. -The Research Office has initiated new internal funding mechanisms to advance research and scholarly activities, called ASPIRE. There will be 3 major tracks of funding designated ASPIRE-I, ASPIRE-II and ASPIRE-III to promote Innovation, Integration and Infrastructure. The programs are used to bring faculty together into interdisciplinary efforts and provide seed money for new efforts. The Environmental & Sustainability Program targets the ASPIRE program for projects. http://www.sc.edu/researchdev/aspire.shtml