Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 70.87
Liaison Daimon Eklund
Submission Date Dec. 23, 2021

STARS v2.2

University of Washington, Seattle
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00
"---" 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:
In partnership with the Campus Sustainability Fund, the Resilience Lab awards Resilience and Compassion Seed Grants to support projects that cultivate resilience, compassion, and sustainability at the UW. As of Fall 2021, over $118,000 has been disbursed to fund impactful activities, programs, and applied research led by students, faculty, and staff across all three campuses.
https://wellbeing.uw.edu/resilience-lab/seed-grants/

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:
Since 2014, the Office of Global Affairs has been advancing interdisciplinarity through the Global Innovation Fund. It supports transformative cross-college, cross-continent research collaborations and global Husky Experiences.
Applications aligned with one or more of UW’s strategic initiatives receive higher priority:
UW Race & Equity initiative
UW Innovation Imperative
UW Population Health initiative
American Indian and Indigenous studies
https://www.washington.edu/globalaffairs/gif/

The UW's Sustainability Action Plan adopted in 2020 has set Doubling Sustainability Oriented Research by 2025 as one of the goals.
https://green.uw.edu/sustainability-plan/target-iii-double-sustainability-oriented-research-projects-2025

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:
Each school or college at the UW has their own promotion and tenure requirements. The UW faculty code explicitly mentions that interdisciplinary research and contributions to diversity are to be valued in considering qualifications.
https://www.washington.edu/admin/rules/policies/FCG/FCCH24.html#2432

Some, but not all, colleges have policies giving positive recognition to interdisciplinary research.

In the College of the Environment, promotion and tenure guidelines explicitly give positive recognition to interdisciplinary research, and the guidelines also emphasize that the UW Faculty Code values interdisciplinary research (24-32B) and contributions to diversity (24-32 prologue).
http://coenv.washington.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Promotion-and-Tenure-Guidelines.pdf

The School of Public Health, Department of Global Health, School of Medicine and School of Nursing also have policies supporting interdisciplinary research, as compiled in the Interdisciplinary APT Toolkit created by Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education, Research and Practice (CHSIE).
https://collaborate.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Interdisciplinary-APT-Toolkit.pdf

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 UW Libraries has provided extensive services and support for sustainability research and learning for many years. The Libraries has assigned several librarians responsibility for outreach to departments and programs emphasizing sustainability. This outreach includes research, consultation, instruction, and developing collections supporting related research and teaching.

The UW Libraries has created several sustainability-related research guides, including the Environment (http://guides.lib.washington.edu/environment), Environmental Justice (https://guides.lib.uw.edu/research/envjustice), Climate Change (https://guides.lib.uw.edu/c.php?g=887764&p=6381432), Global Sustainability Movements (https://guides.lib.uw.edu/research/globalsustainability) and many more. For a full list, see http://guides.lib.washington.edu/subject

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