For the third year, Yale Planetary Solutions has awarded seed grants to research projects pursuing novel solutions to urgent climate and environmental problems. Totaling more than $2 million, the 2024 grants fund projects that leverage Yale’s expertise to catalyze solutions to complex environmental challenges. Bringing together researchers from a wide range of disciplines, including public health, music, ecology and evolutionary biology, and more, these projects hold great promise for accelerating action and impact on the greatest planetary challenges of our time.
Each project is interdisciplinary and designed for dissemination through education and other forms of outreach and for implementation via policy and other incentives. They fall this year into three themes: biodiversity and ecosystems; climate change; and communities and society. Several tackle challenges surrounding carbon capture and utilization, while others make use of artificial intelligence (AI). All of them focus on real-world, near-term, and potentially transformative action.
The Three Cairns Climate Impact Innovation Fund, the Natural Carbon Solutions Fund, the Simon Bates Catalyst Fund, the Science Catalyst Fund for Planetary Solutions, the Gordon Data and Environmental Sciences Research Grants, and the Science Frontiers Endowment made the grants possible. Read about the awardees below.
