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In 2022, the ACS launched the ACS Campaign for a Sustainable Future to advance chemistry innovations in addressing the challenges articulated in the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (U.N. SDGs). This multifaceted initiative will have lasting impacts on how we conduct research, how we teach chemistry, and how we collaborate globally. One of the key initiatives of the Campaign is the Sustainable Futures Initiative Grant Program (SFIGP) which provides catalytic funding for early and mid-career faculty interested in developing a research and teaching portfolio that contributes directly to developing transformative chemistries that address the U.N. SDGs.
In our inaugural 2023 competition, $1 million in funding was awarded in two grant competitions administered through the SFIGP:
1) Early Career Postdoctoral-Faculty Bridge Grant – $125,000 in funding for an early career researcher to hire a postdoctoral fellow (PDF), who, together, can launch a new research lab in green chemistry and engineering. The competition is open to current PDFs with aspirations for a career in academia, and to professors within the first nine months of a faculty position. Applicants of both types must come from U.S. Ph.D.-granting universities.
2) Principal Investigator Development in Sustainability Grant – $50,000 in funding to a professor at a U.S. Ph.D.-granting university to conduct their sabbatical leave at a private company, a national laboratory, or an academic laboratory in a different institution, with the goal of establishing robust collaborations across industry-academia or across disciplines.
Last year’s winners include Prof. Katherine Shulenberger, who recently launched her independent career at Brandeis University and is focusing on developing heavy metal-free nanocrystals for clean energy generation, and Prof. Christopher Wirth of Case Western Reserve University who will be taking his sabbatical leave at the Dow Chemical Company to develop a long-term academia-industry collaboration focused on enhancing the sustainable chemical formulation of products and their manufacturing processes.
Our 2023 grant winners will convene this August in Denver, CO at the ACS Fall 2024 national meeting to participate in the 2024 Greening Undergraduate Laboratories Workshop, where they will interact with our 2024 Green Chemistry Teaching Award winners (recently honored at the 28th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference in Atlanta, GA) on best practices for re-imagining chemistry curriculum at the college level to better prepare students for future careers in which they work toward addressing grand global challenges such as those outlined by the U.N. SDGs.
The SFIGP aims for high-impact research, with a commitment to enhancing green chemistry and engineering education. Over $1 million in funding will be available for the 2024 competition. Submission for applications opened on July 15, 2024 and will close on September 20, 2024.
