Stanford researchers receive funding for cutting-edge environmental solutions

The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment is awarding more than $4 million to 22 research teams seeking innovative solutions to pressing climate challenges. This year, Woods is supporting twelve Environmental Venture Projects (EVP) and four Realizing Environmental Innovation Program (REIP) projects alongside four Big Ideas for Oceans projects and two Human and Planetary Health Early Career Awards. 

The EVP program provides up to $250,000 per team for interdisciplinary research that seeks to identify solutions to critical problems of the environment and sustainability. The REIP program provides up to $500,000 per team, and provides next stage funding to move existing research projects toward solutions implemented by public stakeholders and market actors. Since EVP began in 2004 and REIP began in 2015, Woods has awarded more than $35 million in grants to 201 research teams representing all seven of Stanford’s schools and working in 37 different countries. These projects have gone on to receive more than $100 million in additional funding from other sources.

2025 Realizing Environmental Innovation Program awards

Bringing blue foods into the school meals program in Indonesia
James Leape, Rosamond Naylor, Fiorenza Micheli

Foods from the ocean, or blue foods, are rich in essential nutrients and often more affordable than proteins like beef and chicken. In Indonesia, where ocean access is plentiful but malnutrition is widespread, integrating blue foods into school meals is key to alleviating poverty and supporting development. Backed by the Indonesian government and aligned with national priorities, the project responds to a direct request from top officials to integrate blue foods into President Subianto’s flagship school meals initiative. This project expands the team's previous collaboration with Indonesian officials in developing a Blue Foods Assessment to include: building a database of user-friendly digital tools and guidelines, training thousands of nutritionists, and launching a pilot program in three Indonesian districts to test blue foods in school meals.

Reducing the rate of sea level rise by slowing glacial motion
Jenny Suckale, Gabrielle Wong-Parodi, Dustin Schroeder, Robert Dunbar, Ching-Yao Lai

Glacial melt is a tipping point that could irreversibly damage the climate system. This projects aims to evaluate the potential of basal anchoring – an experiential method to reduce glacial motion by increasing friction between ice and the ground below. Inspired by natural events like the Kamb Ice Stream, which was anchored to the ground after losing a fraction of its basal water over 200 years ago, the researchers hope to establish a proof-of-concept field test in Alaska. The field test design will be co-developed with Indigenous communities to ensure ethical, socially-acceptable testing.  The long-term goal is to determine whether this technique could be scaled to slow the flow of large Antarctic glaciers and help mitigate sea level rise.

Protecting communities in California’s oil refinery phase-out
Deborah Sivas, Ines Margarida Lima de Azevedo, Adam Brandt

California’s transition away from fossil fuels has rapidly restructured the state's oil refining industry. As refineries convert to biofuels or shut down entirely, there is a growing risk that, without proactive intervention and inclusive stakeholder engagement, these sites will be abandoned in a contaminated state. This could particularly impact low-income communities historically burdened by pollution. This project seeks to develop legal strategies to assess environmental remediation needs, analyze the financial state of the refining industry, and convene a series of Uncommon Dialogues with owners, community leaders, laborers, and regulators to build consensus around reuse strategies. By supporting state agencies and community partners, the researchers aim to inform policy decisions in California and offer a model for transitions across the U.S.

The tap trust intervention
Anisha Patel, Khalid Osman

Many families in low-income Latinx communities distrust their tap water due to concerns about safety, taste, and appearance, leading to higher consumption of sugary drinks and costly bottled water. This contributes to health issues like dental cavities and cardiometabolic disease. This project will test an intervention that provides families with home water quality testing and tailored solutions, such as filters, to address tap water problems. Through a randomized controlled trial, the study aims to build trust and increase tap water consumption while reducing intake of unhealthy beverages. The research will evaluate the intervention's impact on water security and beverage choices for preschool-aged children and their parents.

2025 Environmental Venture Project awards

Removing ‘forever chemicals’ from contaminated drinking water supplies
Yan Xia, Xiaolin Zheng, William Mitch

The presence of PFAS (“forever chemicals”) in drinking water is an urgent public health crisis: these chemicals have been linked to serious health effects like cancer and thyroid disease, and studies show over 98 percent of Americans have PFAS in their blood. Current mitigation strategies focus on removing the chemicals through reverse osmosis and absorption, followed by incineration at extremely high temperatures. These methods are energy-intensive, produce toxic byproducts, and often fail to completely break down the chemicals. Using samples from water treatment facilities, this project aims to develop novel materials that effectively capture PFAS without generating harmful secondary pollutants and to explore low-temperature, solid-state reactions that convert PFAS into environmentally stable compounds.

Improving livestock health and preventing disease spread through predator conservation
Rodolfo Dirzo, James Jones

Zoonotic diseases can decimate livestock industries, contribute to famine and malnutrition, and drive human disease outbreaks. In Africa, where wildlife and livestock interaction is common, fences are commonly used to prevent disease spillover. Widespread fencing is costly and ecologically damaging, disrupting critical wildlife migration patterns. This project offers a natural, environmentally-friendly alternative: conserving top predators as a natural form of disease control. Focusing on the Okavango Delta in Botswana, researchers will quantify how lion predation on Cape buffalo influences the spread of bovine tuberculosis to cattle, and share their findings with local farmers through a community-based education program to discourage lion killings.

Planting kelp to protect erosion-prone coastlines
Christine Baker, Brooke Weigel

As sea levels rise and coastal cliffs erode, communities face mounting pressure to protect shorelines. Traditional solutions such as seawalls, beach nourishment, and stabilization structures are finite and often unpopular due to reduced beach access. Shallow-water artificial reefs present a promising, nature-based alternative by dissipating wave energy offshore while supporting recreation like surfing. This project explores how planting intertidal kelp on artificial reefs can further enhance their performance. By increasing biological roughness, kelp may amplify wave attenuation and promote sediment retention, while simultaneously creating habitat to support marine biodiversity. By planting kelp on artificial reefs in Pacifica, CA, the researchers will measure how kelp reduces wave energy and deliver recommendations to local stakeholders for more effective coastal infrastructure.

Direct measurement of marine carbon sequestration
Manu Prakash, Olav Solgaard

The ocean is the Earth’s largest natural carbon sink, sequestering over a third of human-generated CO₂ emissions every year. For decades, scientists have relied on indirect models to estimate this process, leaving a major gap in scientific understanding of the ocean’s biological pump. This project aims to revolutionize how carbon sequestration is measured by directly tracking the sinking of the tiny, organic particles that contain carbon into the deep ocean (marine snow). Building off previous research by the Prakash Lab, the team will expand their dataset across multiple oceans and build and test an underwater imaging instrument to track particles at various depths. This work has major implications for improving climate model accuracy and validating commercial carbon removal methods.

Building community and policymaker acceptance for wind energy infrastructure
Sara Constantino, Ines Margarida Lima de Azevedo

Across the U.S., renewable energy projects are increasingly delayed by local ordinance or zoning issues, interconnection delays, and community opposition. As expanding wind and solar power is critical for meeting rising electricity demand and climate goals, understanding these barriers is essential. This research aims to understand and improve public and stakeholder acceptance of large-scale wind energy projects in the U.S. by studying the factors that influence community perception. Through a series of national and longitudinal surveys, the study will identify strategies for improving stakeholder trust and engagement. By identifying  specific project features and public engagement strategies that increase support for wind projects, the findings will equip developers and policymakers with tools to facilitate adoption.

Building a robotics platform for water pipe system improvements
Allison Okamura, Richard Luthy

In the U.S., a water pipe breaks every two minutes, resulting in billions of gallons of water loss and costly repairs each year. Aging infrastructure and the complexity of underground pipe networks make inspections challenging and infrequent. This project aims to bridge this gap by developing a soft, vine-like robot capable of navigating pipes and transmitting data back to the user through built-in sensors. The researchers will build and test prototypes to improve the hardware and software components, including a user-friendly interface and cloud data management. By enabling access to previously unreachable parts of the system, the robot promises to lower inspection costs and support more proactive, sustainable water infrastructure management.

Improving public health among outdoor workers in the San Joaquin Valley
Manali Patel, Abby King, Gabrielle Wong-Parodi

Outdoor workers in the San Joaquin Valley are exposed to harmful air pollutants, increasing risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. In preliminary interviews with community members and workers, the research team found that many lack equitable access to risk reduction measures and adequate health care. This project will engage communities in the San Joaquin Valley to document first-person challenges and experiences related to air quality. Using a mobile app, participants will capture data through geotagged photos and personal narratives. The researchers will use these insights to identify solutions, engage local policymakers, communicate findings through policy briefs, public exhibitions, and social media.

uMzantsi Island Project
Grant Parker, Barnabas Daru

Island ecosystems are especially vulnerable to extreme weather events, invasive species, and biodiversity loss. To raise awareness of these challenges and make scholarly materials more accessible, this project will develop a publicly available, geotagged digital archive focused on three island groups connected to Southern African history and geography. Drawing on interdisciplinary expertise in the humanities and biological sciences, the project will digitize underutilized historical and ecological materials from archives in South Africa, Namibia, and the UK. The archive will be organized around key themes (including invasive species, habitat loss, historical weather data, and more) and will offer two main features: a Virtual Museum, where users can filter materials by theme, location, or time period, and a Virtual Field Trip, which provides interactive images and videos of key island sites.

Carbon Ranch 2: An ecosystem restoration experiment on a former cattle ranch in California
Patrick Brown, Mark Krasnow

Cattle grazing is a leading cause of terrestrial ecosystem destruction, biodiversity collapse, and methane emissions. While restoring the ecosystems destroyed by cattle husbandry would yield significant environmental and carbon sequestration benefits, there is a critical lack of evidence on which rewilding strategies are most effective. This project launches a long-term, field-based ecological experiment on a 110-acre former cattle ranch in California to address that gap. Researchers will plant a variety of native tree species, measure above- and below-ground carbon, and monitor wildlife activity using tools such as eDNA sampling, camera traps, and audio recorders. By identifying effective restoration techniques, the researchers aim to inform scalable strategies to reverse biodiversity loss and incentivizing landowners to phase-out cattle grazing.

Quantifying tradeoffs in approaches to carbon removal
Marshall Burke, Steven Davis

Removing carbon from the atmosphere is crucial to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. A wide range of carbon removal technologies exist, but they differ significantly in cost, speed, permanence, and reliability. Some methods are highly effective but expensive, while others are substantially cheaper but less certain in their long-term impact. This project aims to develop an accurate, user-friendly decision-support tool to help stakeholders understand and navigate these tradeoffs. Researchers will assess the real-world performance of current carbon removal strategies and create a web-based calculator that enables users to compare benefit-cost profiles and model custom scenarios.

Marshall Burke (Environmental Social Science)
Steven Davis (Earth System Science)

Merging citizen science and experiential learning to document threatened ecosystems
Mark Krasnow, Robert Siegel, Manu Prakash

This project seeks to systematically catalog the species and ecosystems of Madagascar, one of the world’s most unique and threatened biodiversity hotspots. Over the past decade, the research team has conducted deep genomic profiling of plants, animals, and microbes in Ranomafana National Park. The researchers propose a novel approach to ecosystem monitoring by equipping high school students with the tools and training to catalog biodiversity data across the island. By merging citizen science with curriculum-based experiential learning, the project seeks to create a scalable, cost-effective model for comprehensive ecosystem monitoring – one that generates valuable scientific data while empowering students and communities to understand and protect their natural heritage.

Investigating the role of urban greenspaces in climate migration decisions
Nicole Ardoin, Sara Constantino

Nearly half of U.S. cities are projected to decline in population by 2100, but the factors shaping migration decisions are poorly understood. This project explores how the physical environment, particularly urban greenspace, contributes to the development of a “sense of place” and impacts migration decisions. By surveying a randomized sample of residents in U.S. cities, the researchers will investigate the role that greenspaces play in deepening place connections and reducing migration likelihood. The findings aim to inform urban planning strategies that use greening interventions to strengthen community resilience and reduce population flight.