University of Illinois Chicago
AC-10: Support for Research

From large-scale technological advancements in energy and sustainability to personal behavioral decision-making opportunities, the intersection of energy, technology and behavior is a critical juncture for understanding and achieving a sustainable and resilient society. BEEST provides an interdisciplinary place for undergraduate and graduate students to explore specific topics within this broader research area, including topics such as scalability of energy efficiency, management and stewardship of water resources, environmental and policy influences on electricity markets, medical technologies as models for sustainability practices, water infrastructure disparities, resilient communities, integration of greenways/nature with smart grids, smart cities, and techno-behavioral influencers on energy decision-making.

UIC's Institute for Environmental Sciences and Policy provides seed funding to faculty research clusters interested in doing sustainability research. The faculty research cluster is conceived as a mechanism for the recruitment and development of new research projects under the guidance of IESP within the departmental structure of the University. The appointment will consist of a mini-grant that will provide seed funding to faculty research teams wishing to jointly explore a research theme or a portfolio of research projects that will over time develop into full research proposal for external funding. IESP envisions the faculty research teams or clusters to consist of two or more researchers from different academic disciplines. All full-time tenured and tenure-track and clinical faculty at the rank of assistant professor and above are eligible for this award.

In the promotion and tenure guidelines it addresses the issue of interdisciplinary research: "The availability of and reliance on external funding varies considerably across fields and it is important that campus reviewers be told the situation and expectations of the candidate's discipline. Collaborative Work: Because interdisciplinary and multi-investigator research is becoming more common, campus reviewers need more detail on the role of candidates in research and teaching that is collaborative. In the case of research use Section II C. to delineate the contributions of the candidate. Letters from co-authors that document the relative contributions of the co-authors can be especially helpful and should be solicited by the executive head. An executive officer statement that explains the value of collaborative work in a given discipline may also be helpful." While optional, faculty are able to include up to one page in their promotion and tenure papers about interdisciplinary work and include appraisals from colleagues about their collaboration to that research.

The University of Illinois faculty developed an e-text titled: Sustainability: A Comprehensive Foundation. It is available at http://cnx.org/content/col11325/latest/. The library also has a research guide at https://researchguides.uic.edu/c.php?g=252581&p=1683942

Office of Sustainability collected the data from campus websites and partners.