One of the primary objectives of the Climate Solutions Research Collective (CSRC) is to connect climate researchers from across disciplines and campuses to advance solutions-oriented research.
To advance this objective, the CSRC put a call out to the UBC research community to submit ideas for interdisciplinary solutions-focused research projects to be tackled by the 2024/25 cohort of Solutions Scholars.
Eight of the projects were selected to advance to a competitive pitch session, held on April 16, 2024. Teams of applicants pitched their project to a panel of judges and UBC community members. Each team had five minutes to present their project, followed by five minutes of questions, including those collected from the audience.
This, however, wasn’t Shark Tank. The objective of this open event was to find ways to help each team realize their goals, regardless of whether their project is selected for the 2024/25 Solutions Scholars program.
At the end of the two-hour event, while presenters and audience members connected over refreshments, the panel of judges, with representatives from the Faculties of Arts, Law, Land and Food Systems, Science and UBC Research and Innovation, deliberated on the pitches and other materials provided by the applicant teams. Projects were evaluated based on their contribution to addressing climate change adaptation, mitigation and/or education, the complement of disciplines included within and across each project, and the feasibility of completing the project deliverables within a short ten-month time frame.
The judges selected four projects that cover a range of fields including agriculture, forestry, policy, atmospheric science, social science, computer and data science, business, and engineering. Graduate students will soon be able to apply to work on these projects as part of the 2024/25 Solutions Scholars Program (stay tuned, applications open soon!).
Congratulations to the following four projects for next year's cohort!
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The eligibility criteria for graduate students and more information about the program will soon be available on our website.
This is the Climate Solutions Research Collective’s first call for project ideas for the Solutions Scholars program. We value your feedback on how this process could be improved in future iterations. Please consider completing the following brief (5 minute) survey.