Yale University
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research

Yale has several sustainable/environmentally focused research centers in which students are encouraged to conduct sustainability research. They allow hands-on clinical and research experience by sponsoring student internships and projects, coordinating faculty research in areas of common interest, and creating symposia, conferences, newsletters and outreach programs. They include the following research centers:
The Center for Business & Environment
Center for Environmental Law & Policy
Center for Green Chemistry & Engineering
Center for Industrial Ecology
Environmental Leadership & Training Initiative
Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry
Hixon Center for Urban Ecology
Yale Project on Climate Change Communication
Yale Climate & Energy Institute

In addition, Yale offers a Summer Environmental Fellowship. Fellowship applications are welcomed from all Yale undergraduates (except for graduating seniors) interested in learning about environmental issues. The summer experience should provide the student with a substantive environmental research or training opportunity. Possibilities include interning with an environmental organization or governmental agency or working on a research project in the field/laboratory at Yale or at another institution. Students should investigate and select a suitable project, internship or training program before applying for the internship program. Potential applicants should discuss and develop their summer plans with a member of the Yale faculty in their area of interest. When students return to campus in the fall, they are required to submit a brief summary report detailing their experience along with pictures of their time away from campus. Students are also required to participate in an experience-sharing presentation event (5 minute presentations from each recipient) which takes place in September. This event is meant to help other students to envision how they might use the SEF in future years.

The Leitner Awards for Uncommon Environmental Collaborations were created in 2018 to advance one of this six following objectives: climate change, urban systems and the environment, environmental communications, environmental data science, environmental justice and environmental health, and interdisciplinary team teaching. A postive outcome that resulted in receipt of the award was research to develop bicycle-mounted “smart thermometers” for use on the Yale campus to monitor heat stress in the urban landscape. The incentive is up to $75,000 for research (and $25,000 for courses).

Weyerhaeuser Research Grants are issued by the Yale Center for Business and the Environment, and provide between two and five grants to support research activities at the intersection of business and the environment. Grants range in size from $10,000 to $40,000 and cover no more than 18 months of work. The goals of this research grant program are to support interdisciplinary and collaborative student-faculty research, increase scholarly research at the intersection of business and the environment, and advance practical solutions to environmental problems. Examples of positive outcomes include: research on methods to increase the adoption of toilet usage in Kenya, critical to the prevention of disease; and a field experiment designed to understand the most effective methods for protecting the Chilean Hake Fish, whose population is nearing collapse.

The Yale Faculty Handbook indicates the following: "Certain interdisciplinary units, programs and centers have specified powers of appointment.” and
“To be considered for this appointment candidates must present significant published research and scholarship representing early demonstrations of disciplinary or interdisciplinary leadership, excellent teaching and mentoring of students, and engaged University citizenship.”

The Yale Library offers research guides (called LibGuides) in myriad areas relating to sustainability, including but not limited to Biology, Chemistry, Data & Statistics, Economics, Forestry & Environmental Studies, Geology & Geophysics, Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing, Public Health, and Sociology. Yale Librarians have developed hundreds of research guides to assist Yale University Library users with their research. In providing users with guides to the thousands of electronic resources to which Yale University Library subscribes, they are providing more sustainable ways of access to information (i.e. electronic rather than print).