Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 73.17
Liaison Emily Vollmer
Submission Date May 16, 2024

STARS v2.2

Virginia Tech
AC-9: Research and Scholarship

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 10.35 / 12.00 Laurel Miner
Chief of Staff
Office of Vice President for Research and Innovation
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1. Sustainability research

Total number of employees that conduct research:
2,099

Number of employees engaged in sustainability research:
572

Percentage of employees that conduct research that are engaged in sustainability research:
27.25

Part 2. Sustainability research by department

Total number of academic departments that include at least one employee who conducts research:
195

Number of academic departments that include at least one employee who conducts sustainability research:
106

Percentage of departments that conduct research that are engaged in sustainability research:
54.36

Research Inventory 

A copy of the inventory of the institution’s sustainability research (upload):
Inventory of the institution’s sustainability research:
See attachment.

A brief description of the methodology the institution followed to complete the research inventory:
Researchers were defined as those who have been PI or Co-PI on awarded sponsored research projects in the period of July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2023. Using the Virginia Tech’s records of sponsored research, we searched awarded sponsored projects that have one of the sustainability keywords or key phrases (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1y88_ojfw4YmPIxTpoHIoG01-k5bReEOY6_I1NrxN2pY/edit#gid=0) in their title. The awards were double-checked to ensure they were related to sustainability. The individuals doing research are those listed as a PI or co-PI on those awarded projects.

Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the institution’s sustainability research is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Recent news articles about sustainability are here: https://news.vt.edu/content/news_vt_edu/en/tags.html/news_vt_edu:sustainability

For simplicity and consistency, we chose to use the sustainability keywords to identify relevant researchers who are currently doing sustainability research. However, there are several centers and departments that are unified by this kind of research and may not be wholly identified in this method, including:
- Global Change Center: https://globalchange.vt.edu/
- Catawba Sustainability Center: https://catawba.vt.edu/
- Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability: https://cligs.vt.edu/
- Center for Refugee, Migrant and Displacement Studies: https://liberalarts.vt.edu/research-centers/center-for-refugee-migrant-and-displacement-studies.html
- Center for Rural Education: https://rural.vt.edu/
- Conservation Management Institute: https://cmi.vt.edu/
- Most departments in the College for Natural Resources and Environment: https://cnre.vt.edu/academics/departments.html
- Addiction Recovery Research Center: https://fbri.vtc.vt.edu/research/research-centers/addiction-recovery.html
- Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation: https://foodsystems.centers.vt.edu/
- Center for International Research, Education, and Development: https://cired.vt.edu/
- Virginia Water Resources Research Center: https://www.vwrrc.vt.edu/

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.