In the wake of the 2015 Paris climate talks, humanity is at a hopeful turning point. The need and momentum for real-world solutions to profound environmental challenges is perhaps greater than ever before. To tackle these challenges, Woods fosters cross-discipline collaboration and sponsors solutions-focused research around the world. At the heart of this effort is the Environmental Venture Projects (EVP) seed grant program, which helps innovative, often high-risk projects get off the ground. Since the EVP program began in 2004, Woods has awarded grants to 74 research teams working in more than 20 countries. These projects have garnered more than $47 million in follow-on funding and have involved faculty from all of Stanford’s seven schools. The Realizing Environmental Innovation Program (REIP), now in its second year, supports later-stage interdisciplinary research projects that have shown initial promise in identifying solutions. The program awards funding and offers external advising. Woods has awarded more than $12 million in EVP and REIP grants.
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Highlights
Catalyzing Medical Innovation
Woods-affiliated Assistant Professor of Bioengineering Manu Prakash, the recipient of EVP funding for research on a low-cost technology for assessing mosquito-borne diseases, received more than $2 million in follow-on funding to continue this work. Read more.
Preying on Parasites
Prawns are highly effective consumers of snails infected with a parasite that carries schistosomiasis, a potentially deadly disease that infects about 230 million people worldwide, according to a study from a team of researchers that received EVP funding. Read more and watch video.
Finding Water Sources
ReNUWIt, a partnership of multiple universities and private industry co-directed by Palmer Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Richard Luthy, worked with local and federal agencies in drought-stricken California cities in an unprecedented effort to capture and reuse stormwater. ReNUWIt, which grew out of seed funding from an EVP award, identifies new ways to supply urban water and treat wastewater efficiently and sustainably. Read more and water video.
Sensing Environmental Solutions
Woods partnered with Stanford Energy 3.0 to create a funding program, Sensors and Big Data for Solving Environmental Challenges, which awarded four teams up to $70,000 each to develop novel solutions and viable business models for sensors and data analytics tailored to environmental challenges. Read more.
Scaling Up Solutions
Through an EVP grant, a team of Stanford researchers formed Lotus Water, a project devoted to developing and testing intermediate-scale water disinfection technologies for urban slums around the world. The team is researching the demand for and impacts of a chlorine device deployed in Bangladesh. The project’s researchers are working with MSR Global Health and the NGO PATH to maximize their knowledge and experience of scaling technologies and products for low-income settings. Read more.
On Camera
Calculating the Global Economic Cost of Climate Change
New research finds that without climate change mitigation, most countries will see an economic downturn by 2100. Read more.