HMEI Water and the Environment Challenge announces call for proposals

The High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) is seeking innovative research and teaching proposals from Princeton University faculty and senior research staff on behalf of the Water and the Environment Challenge, a long-term research and teaching cooperative under the HMEI Grand Challenges program. The program’s goal is to encourage research, teaching and mentorship that will advance solutions to issues of water and the environment, encourage faculty development, increase Princeton’s institutional capabilities, and enhance the undergraduate experience.

The Water and the Environment Challenge recognizes the critical role that water plays in virtually all aspects of the environmental sciences, as well as the global importance of water as a resource. The program focuses on critical environmental issues associated with physical, chemical and biological aspects of both oceans and freshwater systems. Projects are encouraged in these broad areas with special emphasis given to research topics that have strong linkages with other important environmental topics including agriculture and vegetation, energy, climate change, and ecosystem function. Given the broad dimensions of water and its societal importance across all sectors, proposals that link to the social sciences and humanities will also be considered.

Priority in the selection process will be given to proposals that allow investigators to move into a new areas of research and/or produce collaborations involving two or more faculty from different academic disciplines and with potential to attract larger extramural grants. Like other Grand Challenges, research projects associated with the Water and the Environment Challenge necessarily will include important education-related activities such as courses and/or immersion experiences for undergraduates including multi-year sequences of assignments culminating in robust senior independent work and publishable research. Proposals will be evaluated on how well they address both the teaching and research goals of the Grand Challenges program.

The deadline for written proposals is Wednesday, June 1, 2022. A selection committee will review the proposals, and decisions will be announced in June.

Visit the Call for Proposals page for more information and to apply.