Apply Now for the FY 2025 Sustainability Education Innovation Grants
A new round of Sustainability Education Innovation Grants is now open with proposals due May 15, 2024. These awards will support course transformation using sustainability challenges and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In FY 2024, 30 grant-funded projects resulted in the design or redesign of more than 40 core, elective, lab, and capstone offerings in 16 schools and all six colleges at Georgia Tech. These grants advance progress toward the ambitious sustainability education goals outlined in the Sustainability Next plan, Georgia Tech’s Strategic Plan, and the Institute’s new Climate Action Plan. The new grantees will be announced in June and will have many opportunities to learn from other faculty already engaged in teaching with sustainability and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The current Request for Proposals (RFP) invites applicants to include at least one of the following four areas within sustainability education: 1) community-engaged teaching and learning; 2) cross-disciplinary or transdisciplinary learning; 3) experiential learning tied to Georgia Tech’s Living Campus initiative; and/or 4) sustainability education research that evaluates the impact of sustainability course integration on student learning. Project budgets up to $10,000 will be considered and funds may be used for course release, student support, materials, course or conference travel, and other expenses allowable with state funds.
An information session about the RFP was held on April 30th, 2024; a recording and transcript are available here. Please contact Jennifer Leavey (Jennifer.leavey@cos.gatech.edu) or Rebecca Watts Hull (rwattshull@gatech.edu) with any questions about the grant opportunity.
Grant winners will have opportunities to learn from peers across many disciplines who have experience redesigning courses to incorporate sustainability and the SDGs. More than 30 faculty members participated in a Community of Practice on Transformative Teaching with the SDGs during the 2023-24 academic year, meeting regularly to exchange feedback, share resources, and develop strategies for engaging more faculty and students in transformative teaching and learning with sustainability and the SDGs. Members presented an introductory workshop on SDG course integration for instructors, a Pecha Kucha panel highlighting grant-funded projects, and a student SDG scavenger hunt during the March 3-8, 2024, SDG Week activities. The group also collaborated on an interactive workshop at the USG Teaching and Learning Conference in April, helping faculty from other USG institutions get started with transformative sustainability teaching and learning.
