$200,000 Available for UK Sustainability Challenge Grant, Applications Now Open
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 14, 2020) — The University of Kentucky Sustainability Challenge Grant Program applications for 2020 are being accepted now through Feb. 23. Total project funds available are $200,000 with individual projects eligible to receive up to $50,000. Application materials can be found on the Sustainability website.
The Sustainability Challenge Grant Program is designed to engage faculty or staff-led, multidisciplinary teams from the university community in the creation and implementation of ideas and projects that address sustainability-related challenges. Sustainability, in this context, is intended to convey the need to pursue activities that are ecologically sound, socially just and economically viable. Proposals with an emphasis on student engagement and impact are prioritized during the review and selection process.
“This program has been tremendous because it combines the opportunities and challenges of our physical campus with the intellectual capital of our community to provide unique experiences for our students in the development of real-world solutions,” said UK Shane Tedder, sustainability coordinator.
In the first five years of the program, 33 projects have been awarded a total of $900,000 to pursue a wide range sustainability-driven projects on campus and beyond.
The 2019 Sustainability Challenge Grant winners were:
- Improving Bicycle Infrastructure Using SPIN Bike-Share Trip Data;
- Nature Playscape and Native Landscape at the Child Development Center of the Bluegrass;
- Just Food: Engaging UK in Racially Equitable Food Systems Development;
- Tree CATS;
- Sustainability Module for First Year Experience;
- Organic Waste Composting Pilot Project; and
- Kentucky Integrated Biorefinery.
“This year’s funding illustrates UK’s continued commitment to a sustainable environment by supporting a program that allows direct collaboration between faculty, staff and students in addressing critical sustainability issues at UK and the broader environmental community,” said Lindell Ormsbee, executive director of the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment.
The program is a collaborative effort of the President’s Sustainability Advisory Committee, the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment and the Office of Sustainability. Funding support for the program is also provided by the offices of the Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration, the Provost, and the Vice President for Research as well as the Student Sustainability Council.
For more information visit www.uky.edu/sustainability/sustainability-challenge-grants.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.
In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.