Texas A&M University
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research

Innovation[X] Program: https://innovation.tamu.edu/innovation-x/

The Innovation[X] Program proceeds from the basic idea that productive multidisciplinary collaboration is fundamental to solving big problems. To that end, we have developed a program that brings together faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students from across campus to work on year-long, research-based projects that address real-world issues.

Since our 2019-20 pilot year, the Innovation[X] Program has sponsored 41 projects with grants of $20,000 each. The projects have ranged from laser-guided weed control to on-campus food insecurity, and have directly involved over 300 students and 100 faculty. In the near future the program plans to add more topic-related calls, as well as corporate and NGO challenges. Current Projects: https://innovation.tamu.edu/innovation-x/current-projects/

The Texas A&M Energy Institute:

The Texas A&M Energy Institute is a joint institute between Texas A&M University and the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES). The institute engages undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral associates, research staff, and faculty members in the study and development of innovative technologies and policies for energy production and energy conservation in the energy transition.

Bolstered by the driving forces of the Energy Transition, such as Electrification, Decarbonization, and Digitization, as well as a quest for Innovation and Convergence, through improvements in Efficiency, Quality of Life, and Sustainability, the Texas A&M Energy Institute is leading the charge for our new energy future.

The Texas A&M Energy Institute offers graduate fellowships to reward excellence in energy research, promote research that is important to our energy future, and encourage students to pursue careers in energy. https://energy.tamu.edu/research/fellowships/

Each year, the Texas A&M Energy Institute offers an exceptional opportunity, the Student Research Internship Program, for undergraduate students to conduct hands-on energy research under the supervision of one or more of the Texas A&M Energy Institute’s faculty affiliates. Research results during this program could contribute to a journal publication or possibly be presented at a local or national conference. https://energy.tamu.edu/research/student-research-internship-program/

The Institute for Sustainable Communities (IfSC) conducts research in 5 areas:

The Coastal Risk Reduction and Resilience Initiative of the Institute for Sustainable Communities seeks to provide solutions to today’s most pressing coastal issues through holistic research that explores the interconnections of the natural, built, and socio-political environments and engages communities to enhance local resilience.This initiative builds upon the work of the Texas Center for Beaches and Shores, driven by an interdisciplinary team of faculty, professional staff, and students with backgrounds in urban planning, geography, economics, ocean engineering, coastal ecology, marine biology, marine sciences, environmental science, coastal planning, and political science. The shared focus of this team is coastal hazard reduction and resilience with specific emphasis on coastal flooding. Coastal flooding driven by heavy precipitation, storm surge, and sea level rise is the most costly, disruptive, and life-threatening hazard worldwide. Therefore, it is imperative to research solutions to reduce flood risk and mitigate the negative impacts of storm events. The team dedicated to this initiative are tackling the issue of flooding by studying the association of hazard events, risk reduction, and public policy with the interaction of urban development, anthropogenic impacts, local economies, and community knowledge and culture. The findings of this research promote innovative approaches, both structural and non-structural, to mitigate coastal flooding. This work has been supported by numerous funding agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and the Texas Sea Grant.

The Community Infrastructure area within the IfSC focuses on creating innovative ways for addressing infrastructure problems in local communities. Housed within the College of Engineering, our work is interdisciplinary in nature and spans across multiple infrastructure systems (e.g., water, stormwater, transportation, buildings). These systems are essential for the well-being of local communities.

The Water Security Initiative (WSI) seeks to provide data-driven, analytically sound assessments of water security based on consideration of the coupled natural-human systems. We develop and use effective metrics, models, and analytics of the coupled systems to improve society’s long-term water challenges. The Water Initiative targets key threats to water security, including poverty, climate change, governance and social marginalization, and we seek to understand the complex dynamics of coupled social and environmental systems impacted by challenges, such as decreasing supplies of potable water, in the coming years.
​
The Water Security initiative seeks to establish a robust, cross-regional comparative context in which to develop key analytics and standardized assessments to benchmark current water security situations at multiple scales. We also seek to develop water insecurity models and evaluate progress and performance of policy, program, and technical interventions and evaluate how these impact the natural and human systems. Critical to the goals of the initiative is to create a research and teaching community to support individual research water security interests and foster teams that can also address the coupled human and natural processes related to questions of water security for present and future sustainable needs based on a fundamental understanding of the hydrological cycle and their environmental impacts.

The Community Resilience (CoRe) Program of the Institute for Sustainable Communities seeks to generate and apply research on the impact of natural hazards to socially and physically vulnerable populations and neighborhoods and utilize said research to develop strategies to mitigate and adapt to disasters, with an emphasis on community engagement and participatory processes.

The program seeks to extend the mission of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center (HRRC) by exploring new and transformative directions to create and disseminate research findings to communities and practitioners to better mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters. It is comprised of faculty, professionals, staff and students with backgrounds in urban planning, landscape architecture, landscape ecology, urban hydrology and low impact development. Our work is strongly focused on issues related to land use change and urban development patterns, ecosystem services, water resource conservation, stormwater flooding and storm surge, green infrastructure and climate change and has been supported by many funders, including the Department of Homeland Security, the National Science Foundation and Texas SeaGrant.

The Health and Environment Program of the Institute for Sustainable Communities seeks to link applied public health research and community engagement to the improved measurement of environmental variables to better understand interactions between individual level health outcomes and the built environment, health systems, and community level factors.

The Health and Environment Program is comprised of faculty, professional staff, and students with backgrounds in toxicology, epidemiology, public health, medicine, and food science. Our work is strongly focused on issues related to disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery and is supported by many funders, including the Department of Homeland Security, the National Academies of Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, and the Texas Department of State Health Services.

More information about IfSC can be found here: http://ifsc.tamu.edu/

Innovation[X] Program: https://innovation.tamu.edu/innovation-x/

The Innovation[X] Program proceeds from the basic idea that productive multidisciplinary collaboration is fundamental to solving big problems. To that end, we have developed a program that brings together faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students from across campus to work on year-long, research-based projects that address real-world issues.

Since our 2019-20 pilot year, the Innovation[X] Program has sponsored 41 projects with grants of $20,000 each. The projects have ranged from laser-guided weed control to on-campus food insecurity, and have directly involved over 300 students and 100 faculty. In the near future the program plans to add more topic-related calls, as well as corporate and NGO challenges. Current Projects: https://innovation.tamu.edu/innovation-x/current-projects/

The Texas A&M Energy Institute:

The Texas A&M Energy Institute is a joint institute between Texas A&M University and the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES). The institute engages undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral associates, research staff, and faculty members in the study and development of innovative technologies and policies for energy production and energy conservation in the energy transition.

Bolstered by the driving forces of the Energy Transition, such as Electrification, Decarbonization, and Digitization, as well as a quest for Innovation and Convergence, through improvements in Efficiency, Quality of Life, and Sustainability, the Texas A&M Energy Institute is leading the charge for our new energy future.

More than 290 world-class faculty members and researchers within the Texas A&M University System are Texas A&M Energy Institute Faculty Affiliates.

The Energy Institute’s research efforts focus on the following impactful areas:

Energy Systems Engineering
Resilient Energy and Manufacturing Supply Chains
Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) and the Hydrogen Economy
Energy Technology, Law, Policy, and Societal Impact

https://energy.tamu.edu/research/

The Institute for Sustainable Communities (IfSC) conducts research in 5 areas:

The Coastal Risk Reduction and Resilience Initiative of the Institute for Sustainable Communities seeks to provide solutions to today’s most pressing coastal issues through holistic research that explores the interconnections of the natural, built, and socio-political environments and engages communities to enhance local resilience.This initiative builds upon the work of the Texas Center for Beaches and Shores, driven by an interdisciplinary team of faculty, professional staff, and students with backgrounds in urban planning, geography, economics, ocean engineering, coastal ecology, marine biology, marine sciences, environmental science, coastal planning, and political science. The shared focus of this team is coastal hazard reduction and resilience with specific emphasis on coastal flooding. Coastal flooding driven by heavy precipitation, storm surge, and sea level rise is the most costly, disruptive, and life-threatening hazard worldwide. Therefore, it is imperative to research solutions to reduce flood risk and mitigate the negative impacts of storm events. The team dedicated to this initiative are tackling the issue of flooding by studying the association of hazard events, risk reduction, and public policy with the interaction of urban development, anthropogenic impacts, local economies, and community knowledge and culture. The findings of this research promote innovative approaches, both structural and non-structural, to mitigate coastal flooding. This work has been supported by numerous funding agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and the Texas Sea Grant.

The Community Infrastructure area within the IfSC focuses on creating innovative ways for addressing infrastructure problems in local communities. Housed within the College of Engineering, our work is interdisciplinary in nature and spans across multiple infrastructure systems (e.g., water, stormwater, transportation, buildings). These systems are essential for the well-being of local communities.

The Water Security Initiative (WSI) seeks to provide data-driven, analytically sound assessments of water security based on consideration of the coupled natural-human systems. We develop and use effective metrics, models, and analytics of the coupled systems to improve society’s long-term water challenges. The Water Initiative targets key threats to water security, including poverty, climate change, governance and social marginalization, and we seek to understand the complex dynamics of coupled social and environmental systems impacted by challenges, such as decreasing supplies of potable water, in the coming years.
​
The Water Security initiative seeks to establish a robust, cross-regional comparative context in which to develop key analytics and standardized assessments to benchmark current water security situations at multiple scales. We also seek to develop water insecurity models and evaluate progress and performance of policy, program, and technical interventions and evaluate how these impact the natural and human systems. Critical to the goals of the initiative is to create a research and teaching community to support individual research water security interests and foster teams that can also address the coupled human and natural processes related to questions of water security for present and future sustainable needs based on a fundamental understanding of the hydrological cycle and their environmental impacts.

The Community Resilience (CoRe) Program of the Institute for Sustainable Communities seeks to generate and apply research on the impact of natural hazards to socially and physically vulnerable populations and neighborhoods and utilize said research to develop strategies to mitigate and adapt to disasters, with an emphasis on community engagement and participatory processes.

The program seeks to extend the mission of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center (HRRC) by exploring new and transformative directions to create and disseminate research findings to communities and practitioners to better mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters. It is comprised of faculty, professionals, staff and students with backgrounds in urban planning, landscape architecture, landscape ecology, urban hydrology and low impact development. Our work is strongly focused on issues related to land use change and urban development patterns, ecosystem services, water resource conservation, stormwater flooding and storm surge, green infrastructure and climate change and has been supported by many funders, including the Department of Homeland Security, the National Science Foundation and Texas SeaGrant.

The Health and Environment Program of the Institute for Sustainable Communities seeks to link applied public health research and community engagement to the improved measurement of environmental variables to better understand interactions between individual level health outcomes and the built environment, health systems, and community level factors.

The Health and Environment Program is comprised of faculty, professional staff, and students with backgrounds in toxicology, epidemiology, public health, medicine, and food science. Our work is strongly focused on issues related to disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery and is supported by many funders, including the Department of Homeland Security, the National Academies of Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, and the Texas Department of State Health Services.

More information about IfSC can be found here: http://ifsc.tamu.edu/

Faculty members should be recognized and rewarded for research, teaching, and service/engagement that contribute at the university or college levels in strategic multidisciplinary areas (which include activities in recognized interdisciplinary programs). Such contributions are as valued as disciplinary contributions, which we are accustomed to recognizing and rewarding. The procedures should not require that all faculty engage in multidisciplinary activities, but should recognize that such engagements may be in all three primary categories (teaching, creating new knowledge, or service/engagement).

The Texas A&M University Libraries (Libraries) supports and encourages sustainability research and learning by offering a large inventory of resources, services, and funding to the University’s faculty, researchers, clinicians, and students. Further, the Libraries actively supports the equitable access of information resources. For the past two decades, one of the Libraries’ goals has been to focus on providing access to information unbounded by the Libraries physical hours of operation. This includes providing a wide and deep collection of information resources, customizable subject and course support, and librarians that offer general and specialized expertise in the equally diverse aspects of Sustainability.

INFORMATION RESOURCES
Sustainability has become both a multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary field of study. It has extended beyond a focus in the STEM disciplines into other fields such as law, public policy, international affairs, business, marketing, career opportunities, and the social sciences. Notably, there is a growing field of sustainability studies that centers around the humanities, not only in historical studies, but now into sustainability’s impact on literature and rhetoric.
The Libraries have an ongoing digitization program that targets print resources that are not available online. Digitizing these items makes them available to the world at large without the need to loan them through the mail or for others to physically travel to College Station for viewing. The Libraries have made available almost all of the publications from the Agricultural Experiment Stations and is beginning to look at Engineering Extension Services publications. These publications address past generations’ efforts in land use, conservation, energy, and transportation. The Libraries are digitizing items from its Special Collections that are unique to us, making them available to the world. The Libraries are also working to preserve existing digital materials that would otherwise be lost because of technological obsolescence.
These digitized resources are deposited in various open-access venues, such as the Texas Digital Library, HathiTrust, and the Libraries’ Digital Asset Management System. A major component of the DAME is the OAKTrust Repository, where most of the Texas A&M-produced research, such as the digitized Extension publications, reside. OAKTrust also accepts pre- and post-print articles currently published by faculty where publication policies allow and satisfies requirements by many granting organizations, including the NSF and NIH, that pre-publications and data sets be housed in open access databases. The Data Management Services unit also supports the researchers needs to comply with these federal mandates.
A search for “sustainability” in the Libraries’ main search box results in over two million articles, books, and other resources, covering subjects ranging from philosophy to law to ecology, social aspects, architecture, engineering, agriculture, etc. Numerous library research guides and several librarian subject specialists are available to help find needed resources. The Libraries provide access to over 164,000 electronic journal titles, over 115,000 print journals, and nearly 1,500 databases. Over the last decade, the Libraries have purchased many electronic journal backfiles that allow online access to older material and letting the Libraries remove the corresponding print volumes from the public shelves. This was accelerated in 2020 when the Provost gave the Libraries an additional $1 million for additional backfile purchases. Another benefit resulting from this expanded purchasing is that the Libraries have seen a notable reduction in the amount of material our faculty and students request to borrow from other libraries, allowing the Libraries to move a staff position from this work to another area.
Like most academic libraries, in the past decade the Libraries have moved from trying to anticipate future needs, which involved buying large quantities of materials that saw little use, to a model that purchases fewer materials and relies more on patron requests for materials they need now. The Libraries still proactively purchase a large number of books that seem likely to be used by our faculty and students. These purchases are actively monitored to cut down on purchases in areas that see little use once they arrive on our shelves. In an effort to control costs, the journals portion of the budget has been reviewed closely over the past few years, with the Libraries identifying titles that no longer see much use. The Libraries have culled the equivalent of 1% of journal costs per year over the past five years. In 2021, the print journals were examined, and roughly half of those titles were cancelled or converted to electronic only, which will reduce the need for shelf space and costly commercial binding for preservation. The GetItForMe service allows the Libraries to borrow items from other libraries, rather than purchase items that may be of limited long-term value to our collections. In 2018, this unit reviewed its operations and implemented changes that both boosted services and saved money.
A major sustainability effort by the Libraries is its management of the Joint Libraries Facility (JLF), co-owned by the University of Texas and Texas A&M University Systems and located on the RELLIS campus. Both systems needed a long-term cost-effective solution to their space constraints in a manner that would avoid future campus construction costs. They adopted the concept of “Resources in Common” (RIC), which allows joint ownership of volumes deposited in JLF. Public shelf space in libraries is an expensive storage solution and few libraries have space to add shelves as collections grow. When an item is sent to the JLF by one library, any other JLF-member library that owns that title can claim that item and dispose of its physical copy. Several libraries may “own” the single item stored in JLF. As only low-use items are sent to JLF, this allows libraries across the two systems to dispose of older, seldom used volumes in a manner that allows them to still allow their patrons to use the JLF copy if it becomes needed. The JLF currently holds 1.18 million volumes, of which over 807,000 (68%) are RIC. In 2019 the JLF was identified as a designated participant in the NLM Medical Serials Print Preservation Program (MedPrint), providing storage for a nationwide network of medical libraries.

SERVICES FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES
As indicated previously, the Libraries are strong advocates in theory and practice for the equitable access of information resources. The Libraries have designed physical and virtual learning and research information sources and services that can be utilized by users irrespective of any individual disabilities or disadvantages (https://library.tamu.edu/services/accessibility.html)

Information about Innovation[x] Program: https://innovation.tamu.edu/innovation-x/ Current Projects: https://innovation.tamu.edu/innovation-x/current-projects/

https://energy.tamu.edu/ - Texas A&M Energy Institute