University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
AC-10: Support for Research

Students have multiple yearly opportunities for sustainability research through the Office of Sustainability at UW-Milwaukee, which seeks to partner with departments across campus to increase student/faculty research. Recent programs include paid and/or for-credit opportunities regarding bicycle transit, food purchase assessment, waste & recycling, on-campus composting. Yearly opportunities emerge through a partnership of the Office of Sustainability and the School of Architecture & Urban Planning in particular.

UWM’s Social Compact grants-This grants program is part of a larger effort UWM is undertaking, in conjunction with community partners, to respond to the challenges associated with poverty in Milwaukee. The Social Compact grants will be given to proposals that address social justice, social entrepreneurship, and equity issues. Solutions Central is part of this compact and serves as a way to make a difference in specific urban areas with measurable outcomes. The Social Compact grants are supported through a collaboration between Solutions Central (a project of the Division of Global Inclusion & Engagement) and the Social Entrepreneurship, Justice & Equity Compact (SEJEC). The Social Compact grants committee welcomes applications for projects that focus on reducing poverty in the Greater Milwaukee area. Proposals must have a UWM faculty or academic staff as the lead, and must also include at least one community partner. The committee will award a number of grants up to $25,000 each from a total of $200,000 in available awards. The opportunity is being funded through the Division of Global Inclusion and Engagement (Dr. Joan Prince) and the Social Compact Grant Committee (co-chaired by Dean Scott Emmons – Peck School of the Arts and Dr. Robert Smith – Director, Cultures & Communities and Associate Professor of History). Grant Funded Opportunities & Themes: Social Compact Grants support community-UWM collaborations that address poverty. Collaborative grants may include, but are not limited to, any of the following themes & strategies: Equity, Reading/Literacy, Educational Achievement Gap, Graduation and Retention Rates, School Suspensions, Justice, Influencing Public Policy, Housing, Food Justice, Re-Entry/Recidivism, Employment/Jobs, Social Innovation/Entrepreneurship and 
Business Development, Community Development, Workforce Readiness & Job Creation, Sustaining partnerships/collaborations, Others, Community Health and Wellness, Parenting Support. The ideal grant application centers on a project that brings together a UWM program with community resources such as neighborhood improvement groups, community centers, schools, and health agencies.

E-learning objects include databases such as: BuildingGreenSuite BuildingGreen Suite is the leading online resource for reliable content on sustainable design strategies, green building materials, and case studies of high performance buildings. GreenFILE GreenFILE offers well-researched information covering all aspects of human impact to the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes content on the environmental effects of individuals, corporations and local/national governments, and what can be done at each level to minimize these effects. Multidisciplinary by nature, GreenFILE draws on the connections between the environment and a variety of disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology. Topics covered include global climate change, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. UWM Libraries special collections include: The Morris Fromkin Memorial Collection, which has the broad theme of social justice in the US from the end of the Civil War to the end of World War II; as well as digital collections including The March On Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project and Collections within Archives such as the Milwaukee LGBT Oral History Project.