Realizing Environmental Innovation Program

The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment is committed to supporting interdisciplinary research that addresses important environmental problems and leads to implemented solutions.

The Stanford Woods Institute seeks to advance innovative solutions that private market, public policy and individual stakeholders can adopt and are of significant consequence in solving pressing environmental challenges facing people and the planet. These innovative solutions can include, but are not limited to, novel technologies, practices, approaches to behavior change, public policies or some combination.

Announcing our 2023 Awardees Funded Research News and Features

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSAL: January 17, 2024.

Woods Seed Funding Applications

Contact Brian Sharbono, Woods Institute Associate Director, Programs (sharbono@stanford.edu) for more information.

Collaboration Meets Innovation: Environmental Venture Projects and Realizing Environmental Innovation Program (white paper)

Realizing Environmental Innovation Program

The Realizing Environmental Innovation Program (REIP) is intended to provide next stage funding to PIs to move existing interdisciplinary environmental research projects toward actual solutions implemented by public stakeholders and private market actors. To be considered, projects should demonstrate both significant progress in identifying solutions and strong potential by private market or public end users to adopt the discoveries and meaningfully address environmental problems .

PIs with the most competitive LOIs that strongly fit the priorities and guidelines of the program will be invited for an interview. The purpose of the interview is to answer questions about the project and to actively explore the potential for establishing a translational advising team and external partnerships. The research projects deemed most promising in terms of achieving environmental solutions and most relevant to Woods focal areas will be considered for award. Additionally, invited proposals will be sent to Stanford's new Ethics and Society Review Board for any ideas and comments for applying PIs to consider regarding the work.

NOTE: The Stanford Woods Institute partners with resources across Stanford and increasingly outside the university to help faculty identify needed translational resources for their REIP projects. Please contact Brian Sharbono at sharbono@stanford.edu, if you are interested in opportunities to gain early advising for your project as you develop your Letter of Intent for the coming year's application cycle.

Eligibility:

Each PI (Lead and Co-) must be a member of the Academic Council or Medical Center Line. Please verify that both PI and co-PI are PI eligible.
Faculty members may only be Lead PI on one REIP application at a time. Likewise a faculty member may not apply for a Woods Institute REIP grant and an EVP grant in the same application cycle. Faculty members are also restricted from being the Lead PI on more than one active grant from the EVP Program or REIP Program.
However, faculty may be the Lead PI on consecutive grants from the EVP program and/or REIP program. In the case of a consecutive award, a Lead PI applying for a new award will need to have any existing, open grant award from either EVP or REIP set to close, and have the required financial and narrative reports of the current award submitted before the new award can begin.

PROGRAM PRIORITIES

The REI Program seeks later stage projects that, similar to the Woods Institute’s long-standing Environmental Venture Projects (EVP) program:

Are high-risk, transformative and have the potential to produce solutions to major global environmental challenges;
Build on and extend interdisciplinary collaborations among faculty; and
Address challenges within one or more of the Woods’ seven focal areas, which include: oceans, ecosystem services and conservation, public health, freshwater, climate, food security, and sustainable development.

PROGRAM GUIDELINES

Proposed projects should:

Represent one or more of the above program priorities;
Contribute towards a solution to a major global environmental challenge; Incorporate a clear strategy and pathway for moving existing research toward an implementable solution and demonstrate how additional funding will help move the project along that pathway;
Incorporate a clear strategy and pathway for moving existing research toward an implementable solution and demonstrate how additional funding will help move the project along that pathway;
Involve PIs at Stanford from at least two separate disciplines (For assistance identifying possible co-investigators, please visit the Stanford Woods Institute faculty and researchers directory);
Document how the collaborative effort will be stronger than the sum of disciplinary parts;
Demonstrate that significant research progress has already been accomplished and results are promising;
Demonstrate interest on the part of external stakeholders in the solution concepts of the project;
Explain why the project is at a stage where outside funding is not yet available, yet make a strong case that continued advancement holds real promise for outside financial support;
While former Stanford Woods EVP grant winners are eligible, faculty teams need not have received an EVP grant to be eligible. An REIP Lead PI may not be Lead PI on an active EVP grant at the time the REIP project period commences.
The research committee will consider projects with budgets up $500,000 maximum over three years.