Gund Institute for Environment
Gund Catalyst & Impact Awards advance our mission to mobilize scholars and decision makers to understand and tackle critical environmental problems.

In eight years, Gund Catalyst Awards have issued over $1.8 million in startup funds, supporting 28 innovative projects and over 140 UVM scholars. These projects have generated over $40M in external funds and inspired real-world action.

In 2025, the Gund Institute launched the Gund Impact Awards, which aim to move solutions-oriented research to real-world action. Impact projects apply and scale solutions to environmental challenges based on demonstrated proof of concept and collaboration between UVM researchers and external partners. 

The Gund Impact Award competition will provide $100,000 per project, plus funding for a two-year postdoctoral fellow at UVM.  The Gund Institute intends to fund one project this award cycle, to run March 1, 2026 – August 31, 2028 (30 months).   

This competition is currently closed. 

Two people holding soil core.

Funded Research

Explore our research by clicking on the PDF or scroll through awards by year.

See summary of previous research awards (PDF)

2025

How Land Conversion in the Brazilian Cerrado Affects Childhood Health
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Land Use Change and Early Childhood Health Outcomes: A Brazil Case Study 

Dates Active: October 2024-Current 

Project Leads: Kelsey Gleason (PI), Gillian Galford (Co-PI) 

UVM Team: Mojtaba Zeraatpisheh (postdoc), Ariane de Alemeida Rodrigues (postdoc), Uyoyoghene Adeyemo (Ph.D. student), Lara de Macedo Monteiro (Ph.D. student), Hannah Turner (research specialist), Nick Preschel (undergraduate research assistant) 

External Collaborators: Ludmilla Rattis, Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM); Daniel Veriera, EMBRAPA 

Summary: Researchers are investigating if and how land use changes in Brazil’s Cerrado, South America’s largest savanna and second largest biome after the Amazon, are impacting children’s health, specifically incidences of diarrheal disease and chronic malnutrition. Using remote data, spatial analysis, and machine learning tools, the researchers will combine environmental, socioeconomic, and geospatial data to show how land use is changing in the region and affecting children’s health.  

Products:

  • Presentation at the 2025 American Geophysical Union conference: “Using Machine Learning to Explore Socioeconomic and Environmental Influences on Diarrheal Disease in the Brazilian Cerrado” 

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Understanding How Flooding Affects Vermont’s Soils
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A computer in a lab with glass jars hooked up to a machine.
Catalyst incubation study showing all soil core samples in the incubator where they were kept in between GHG analysis and destructive sampling. Courtesy Lindsey Ruhl. 

Understanding and addressing the impacts of flooding on greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient loss, and microbial community dynamics in agricultural soils 

Dates Active: 2025-Current 

Project Leads: Matthew Scarborough (PI), Heather Darby (Co-PI) 

UVM Team: Carol Adair, Lindsey Ruhl, Agustina Montedonico Beiro 

External Collaborators: None 

Summary:  As flooding becomes more common and extreme in Vermont, farmers are increasingly dealing with water-saturated fields. Using soil cores collected from the Borderview Research Farm in Alburg, Vermont, researchers are investigating how flooding affects soil nutrients, the soil microbiome, and the release of greenhouse gas emissions from soils. Researchers are also testing how soils treated with biochar and manure fare when flooded. 

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2024

Behavior and Environmental Behaviors, Value and Identity
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“Starting with behavior” to understand links between pro-environmental behavior, values, and identity 

Dates Active: February 2024-Current 

Project Leads: Rachelle Gould (PI), Trisha Shrum (Co-PI) 

UVM Team: Tabea Hoffmann (postdoc)

External Collaborators: Thomas Dietz, University of Michigan, Gund Global Affiliate, Co-Investigator; Cecily Maller, RMIT University, Australia, Co-Investigator

Summary: This project challenges the assumption that people act sustainably because they already hold strong environmental values. Instead, the researchers will test the idea that the reverse may also be true: engaging in environmentally friendly behaviors can shape people’s values and sense of identity. Through multiple experiments, the study will examine whether doing things like eating a few meatless meals or picking up trash leads individuals to care more about the environment. The goal is to better understand how behavior, values, and identity interact—which can offer new strategies for meaningful sustainability changes. 

Assorted Outcomes:  

  • Anticipated proposal to the Russell Sage Foundation Core Research Grants in Behavioral Science and Decision-making in Context 

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2023

Low-Cost Watershed Pollution Sensors
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A small gadget sitting on a yellow case next to a solar panel.
Photo Credit: Hannah Fischer

Low-cost and high frequency quantification of watershed nutrient loss in warming winters 

Dates Active:  January 2024-April 2026

Project Leads: Carol Adair (PI), Appala Raju Badireddy (Co-PI) 

UVM Team: Andrew Schroth (CAS), Tian Xia (CEMS), Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH)

External Collaborators: Lake Champlain Basin Program

Summary: Under a warming climate, places like Vermont are seeing more winter thaws and rain-on-snow events, which affect nutrient runoff in forests. This nutrient loss is not typically accounted for in forest soil research. Existing equipment to measure these nutrient fluxes is very expensive, can be damaged when left out for extended periods in winter conditions, and requires monitoring, which forces researchers to check icy field sites in difficult winter conditions. Under this project, the researchers designed new, small water nutrient sensors that can withstand winter conditions, be deployed across large sections of forest, and collect and transmit data; importantly, the new sensors are inexpensive and simple to produce and deploy. The team tested these sensors’ accuracy by ground-truthing them against other measurements of nutrients taken at the same field locations.

Assorted Outcomes:  

  • This project produced groundwater nutrient sensors that are simple and inexpensive to make, easy to deploy in the field, and capable of collecting and transmitting data without the need for repeated battery replacement and other winter field maintenance.  

  • Grants resulting from this work include two Vermont Space Consortium/NASA grants as well as grants from the National Science Foundation; NOAA/National Weather Service/U.S. Department of Commerce; and the Lake Champlain Basin Program.  

  • Presentations of the work included the following seminars: graduate and department seminars in Civil and Environmental Engineering; a Vermont Water Center webinar; and a University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science seminar. Professional conference presentations include two at American Geophysical Union and one at the Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization. 

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Co-creating Water Science Education in Jackson, MS
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Intersections between the climate crises, environmental racism, and STEM education: co-creating culturally relevant teacher education in Jackson, MS  

Dates Active: March 2023-August 2024  

Project Leads: Julia Perdrial (PI), Leon Walls (co-PI)  

UVM Team: Professors Regina Toolin (UVM College of Education and Social Services) and Donna Rizzo (UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences); and Gund Graduate Fellow Mandy Nix (UVM Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources) 

External Collaborators: Professors Deidre Wheaton, Chandar Lewis, and Jacquelin Jackson (all of Jackson State University/JSU) 

Summary: The researchers sought opportunities to partner with educators in Jackson, MS following a water crisis that had affected predominantly Black neighborhoods, creating disruption and unknown effects on children and their learning. The team planned to co-create water science education with teachers and community members that is grounded in the local societal and historical context. The team organized listening sessions with Jackson teachers and community members, then helped to create networks among formal and informal science educators and water science experts in Jackson. Finally, the team created a new science curriculum for future teachers in a JSU undergraduate class. 

Assorted Outcomes:  

  • Networks established among Jackson elementary science teachers and community water and science experts and informal educators 

  • New approach to JSU undergraduate science education course 

Media:   

2022

Details
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Coming soon. 

2021

Hands-on Science Curriculum in Winnoski, VT
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Ecological Design and K‑12 Students of Color: An Inquiry-Based Science Approach 

Dates Active: 2021–2022 

Project Leads: Eric Roy (PI), Leon Walls (Co-PI) 

UVM Team: Tricia Brown  

External Collaborators: Nancy Keller, Andrew Wild, Anja Mosehauer, Gina Krol (middle school teachers, Winooski School District)  

Summary: This project explored how inquiry‑based ecological design can strengthen science learning among middle school students of color in Vermont’s most diverse school district. Researchers partnered with Winooski School District (WSD) teachers to develop hands‑on curricula integrating ecological design, food systems, water quality, and sustainability into 6th‑ and 7/8th‑grade classrooms. 

Assorted Outcomes: The project produced two new inquiry‑based ecological design curricula aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. Four Winooski Middle School teachers participated in summer curriculum design workshops and received year‑long intermittent training to support implementation. The Catalyst project also contributed to a successful U.S. EPA grant that launched a follow‑up initiative on food‑waste co‑digestion and anaerobic digestion with WSD 6th‑grade teachers as well as a grant from the Lake Champlain Basin Program, which included a K-12 outreach component at Winooski Middle School. 
  

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Crop Diversity and Nutrition Security in Sub‑Saharan Africa
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Crop Diversity and Food and Nutrition Security Outcomes across Spatial Scales in Sub‑Saharan Africa

Dates Active: 2021–2022 

Project Leads: Daniel Tobin (PI), Emily Belarmino (Co-PI) 

UVM Team: Meredith Niles (formerly a professor in Nutrition and Food Sciences, UVM), Travis Reynolds (College of Agriculture and Life Sciences)

External Collaborators: Kristal Jones, National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), U. Maryland, Brian Thiede, Agricultural Economics, Sociology, & Education, The Pennsylvania State University, Gloria Otieno, Biodversity International, Uganda, Atalel Wubalem Nadew, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia  

Summary: This project examined how smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa could strengthen their food and nutrition security through crop diversification, improved market access, or a combination of both. Past research produced mixed findings because studies often focused on single countries or limited datasets. To address this challenge the team integrated five large, publicly available datasets into a single multi‑country database. This allowed researchers to analyze relationships among crop diversity, climate conditions, market access, and household nutrition outcomes across diverse regions and over time. By linking multiple data sources, the research generated new insights to inform agricultural development, nutrition interventions, and policies that support resilient farming communities. 

Assorted Outcomes: The project produced a comprehensive integrated dataset combining household demographics, crop diversity measures, nutrition indicators, and climate data from sources including USAID DHS, MapSPAM, CHIRPS/CHIRTS, GeNUS, and LSMS. The team also developed new analytical tools and indices to support future research on crop diversity and dietary outcomes. This dataset is now available for use by African researchers and policymakers, supporting region‑specific analyses and decision‑making. 

Products 

  • Isbell, C., Tobin, D., Thiede, B.C., et al. The association between crop diversity and children’s dietary diversity: multi‑scalar and cross‑national comparisons. Food Security 16, 883–897 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-024-01458-9 

  • Morrissey, K., Reynolds, T., Tobin, D., et al. Market engagement, crop diversity, dietary diversity, and food security: evidence from small‑scale agricultural households in Uganda. Food Security 16, 133–147 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-023-01411-2 

  • Curtin, I. J., Tobin, D., & Reynolds, T. (2024). Do Wealth and Market Access Explain Inconsistent Relationships between Crop Diversity and Dietary Diversity? Evidence from 10 Sub-Saharan African Countries. Sustainability, 16(3), 1040. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16031040  

Media 

Consumer Demand and Markets for Hemp
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Hemp as a Contributor to Rural Resilience and Sustainability

Dates Active: 2021-2022

Project Leads: Jane Kolodinsky (PI), Jeff Buzas (Co-PI)

UVM Team: Amanda Falkner (graduate researcher), Steven Kostell, Hannah LaCasse (graduate researcher), Eric Roy, Trisha Shrum, Eric Bishop von Wettberg

External Collaborators: Hemp growers, processors and business owners from Kentucky, Colorado and Vermont. Ellen Kahler, Vermont Sustainble Jobs Fund. Tyler Mark and Yuqing Zheng, University of Kentucky

Summary: This project explored the consumer demand and market trends shaping the emerging U.S. hemp industry. The research team analyzed both revealed‑preference (scanner data) and stated‑preference (choice experiments) information to understand how consumers value hemp-based foods, fiber products, and CBD items. The project pursued four objectives: build a national dataset of supermarket hemp product sales (2012–2020), estimate willingness-to-pay for CBD product attributes, strengthen major federal grant proposals, and share insights with policymakers and stakeholders.
 

Assorted Outcomes: This project produced a new multi-year dataset of all supermarkert hemp product sales in the U.S. The Catalyst project also helped build a multi‑university research coalition. Team members delivered information to USDA leadership, state agriculture agencies, and stakeholder groups. This project received additional funding from UVM's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the Fulbright Foundation and the USDA. 

Products: 

  • Falkner, A. (2022). Hemp in the United States: An Analysis of Policy and Consumption. Master's Thesis.
  • Lacasse, H., Kolodinsky, J., Reynolds, T., & Darby, H. (2022). Modeling Hemp as an Innovative Input. Agriculture and Human Values.
  • Lacasse, H. & Kolodinsky, J. (2022). Consumer Trends and Consumption of Industrial Hemp-Based Products. Elsevier. PAges 367-381
  • Lacasse, H. (2021). Examining Consumer Perceptions & Behaviors Toward Hemp-Based Products. UVM Thesis.

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By the numbers

  • $1.8M Awarded to 28 Catalyst Awards
  • 305 Collaborators from 23 UVM departments and 100+ organizations
  • 40:1 Return on investment from subsequent grants

More Information

Eligibility and Requirements
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Impact Awards eligibility requirements include: 

  • The Principal Investigator (PI) on each proposal must be a Gund Fellow.

  • Each proposal must include one or more UVM co-PIs or collaborators from a different discipline and one or more non-UVM co-PIs or collaborators. Non-academic partners preferred.  

  • Previous Catalyst Award projects (current and past) are eligible to apply. 

  • Gund Impact Awards intend to support research-based solutions that have already demonstrated proof of concept, meaning that solutions have been tested, e.g. via a pilot project, and are ready to be expanded.

Full details are available in the InfoReady application portal.

How to Apply
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Full details and instructions on how to apply for a Gund Impact Award, including an FAQ document, are available in the InfoReady application portal. 

Required Files:

  • Project proposal (see InfoReady for instructions) 

  • Budget and Justification (use template provided in InfoReady) 

  • Collaborators list (use template provided in InfoReady) 

  • 2-page CVs for PI, co-PIs, and collaborators (as applicable) 

  • Completed signature page (template in InfoReady)

  • One-page letter of support from non-UVM partner(s) 

Note: Applicants must follow all relevant procedures within their academic units, including pre-award processes.

Questions?
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Contact Gund Program Specialist Bailey Rowland with questions at any time. bailey.rowland@uvm.edu or to explore other funding opportunities, contact OVPR's Research Development office.