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Research Seed Grants

Annually, the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (MCSI) at the University of Pittsburgh requests faculty grant proposals for interdisciplinary sustainability education and research initiatives. The goals of the grants are to:

  1. Catalyze the formation of convergent research teams focused on sustainability and associated solutions;
  2. Fund projects capable of obtaining external funding upon completion; and
  3. Enhance Pitt’s national recognition in sustainability and the visibility of interdisciplinary sustainability research and education on campus.

Over the past 20 years, MCSI has provided seed funding for 115 faculty in support of sustainability research and as a result has secured follow-on funding from federal agencies totaling over $34.5MM.

To help advance the University’s sustainability goals as outlined in the Pitt Sustainability Plan and to facilitate convergent research, MCSI has identified broad topical areas and project ideas that include:

  • Climate impacts and health
  • Environmental justice
  • Circular economy

It is also interested in the synergies of climate, health, and environmental justice but is mindful of the project scope with the available budget. 

Please check back in November 2025 for more information regarding our 2026 RFPs.

See the 2024 Arts & Humanities Microgrants in Sustainability recipients.

Review the 2025 Research Seed Grant RFP.

Research Seed Grant Recipients

Research Seed Grants seek to support convergent research teams who are focused on sustainability and associated solutions. Seed Grant recipients span a variety of disciplines and work to crucially enhance sustainability education and research, as well as further Pitt’s national recognition in sustainability and the visibility of sustainability research and education on campus. See the history of recipients listed below.

2025-2026

Electrical Engineering Skills to Support Electrification Innovation: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Using Lo-Ra Technology for Long-Term Real-Time Monitoring of Ecological Systems

Fabrication of Low-Cost High-Capacity Ceramic Filters via Binder Jet Additive Manufacturing from Clay Feedstock and Sustainable Binders

2024-2025

Sustainable (Campus) Buildings through Sensing and Human-Building Interaction

Ultra-Low-Power, Reliable Semiconductor Chip & System Design for Ecological Climate Change Studies with Small Animals
Inhee Lee, Electrical & Computer Engineering

Pioneering Sustainable and Transparent Glass Formulations for Climate Resilience
Paul Leu, Industrial Engineering

2023-2024

Deploying Solar Projects in Rural Southwestern Pennsylvania: Understanding and Securing Community Acceptance

Cellulosic Biomass Conversion via Liquid Metal Catalysis
Mohammad Masnadi, Chemical & Petroleum Engineering
 

Thermal Desalination Process Based on Hydrate Crystallization of Polyoxacyclobutane
Sachin Velankar, Chemical & Petroleum Engineering
 

2022-2023

The Role of PA's Public Utility Commission in Efforts to Decarbonize Pennsylvania's Electricity Grid

Engineering Subcellular Bioreactors for Selective Metal Recovery as Metallic Particles

2020-2021

A Circular Chemical Industry: Closing the Anthropogenic Carbon Cycle with Biomimetic Reactors
James McKone, Chemical & Petroleum Engineering

Mapping the Landscape of Seafood in Pittsburgh Markets: Do Safe, Sustainable, and Accessible Meet?
Carla Ng, Civil & Environmental Engineering

Upcycling of Machining Scrap via Mechano-Chemical Attribution Enhanced Hydride-Dehydride Processing for Sustainable Ti-Powder Fabrication

Optimization of Traffic Signals on Pitt's Campus Road Network to Reduce Fuel Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Vehicular Traffic
Aleksander Stevanovic, Civil & Environmental Engineering

2019-2020

Chemical Recycling of Polyethylene to Ethylene

Towards Using Microbes for Sustainable Construction Materials: Feasibility Study*

*Jointly funded by MCSI and IRISE

Investigating Flexible Piezoelectric Materials with Lower Water Pressures
Katherine Hornbostel, Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

Amplifying the Efficiency of Tungsten Disulfide Thermoelectric Devices
Feng Xiong, Electrical & Computer Engineering

2018-2019

The Local Cost of Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells

Case Study of the Application of a Novel Integrated Thermoelectric Device Applied to the Waste Heat Recovery of Fleet Vehicles
Matthew Barry, Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

Life Cycle Assessment Integration for High-Performance Building Design
Melissa Bilec, Civil & Environmental Engineering

Enable Data-Driven Quantitative Assessment of Building Resilience and Sustainability with Self-Powered Sensors

  • Jingtong Hu, Electrical & Computer Engineering
  • Hao Sun, Civil & Environmental Engineering

Computational Methods to Design Efficient and Sustainable Chemical Catalysts
Peng Liu, Chemistry
 

2017-2018

Protein Lithography: A Sustainable Technology for Sub-5-nm Nanomanufacturing
Mostafa Bedewy, Industrial Engineering

High Efficiency of Refrigeration and Cooling through Additive Manufactured Magnetocaloric Devices
Markus Chmielus, Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

Toward Machine Learning Blueprints for Greener Chelants
John Keith, Chemical & Petroleum Engineering

H2P: Hydroponics to Pyrolysis: An Enclosed System for the Phytoremediation and Destruction of Perfectly Persistent Emerging Contaminants in Our Water

2016-2017

Student-Based Observations of Soil Moisture to Quantify Dynamics at the Intersection of Natural and Built Environments

  • Daniel Bain, Geology & Environmental Science
  • Emily Elliott, Geology & Environmental Science
  • David Sanchez, Civil & Environmental Engineering
  • Brian Thomas, Geology & Environmental Science

Learning about Sustainability: Social Learning via Solar Panel Adoption

  • Graham Beattie, Economics
  • Andrea La Nauze, Economics

β-Ga2O3 Nanoelectronics: A Path to Sustainable Semiconductor Technology for High-Efficiency Electricity Conversion from Renewables
William Stanchina, Electrical Engineering

Desalination of Sequestration and Release of Water in Poly Crystals
Sachin Velankar, Chemical & Petroleum Engineering

A Novel Process for Efficient, Decentralized Ammonia Synthesis: Towards Fertilizer Production with Drastically Reduced Environmental Footprint
Götz Veser, Chemical & Petroleum Engineering

2015-2016

Developing CrAssphage as a Marker of Human Fecal Pollution in the Environment
Kyle Bibby, Civil & Environmental Engineering

Indoor Air Impacts and Pittsburgh 2030 Energy District
Melissa Bilec, Civil & Environmental Engineering

Green Infrastructure Implementation Deepening Interdisciplinary at the University of Pittsburgh

  • Michael Blackhurst, University Center for Social & Urban Research
  • Randall Walsh, Economics

Quantifying Reductions in Diesel-Related Air Pollution Exposures across Downtown Pittsburgh

  • Jane Cloughtery, Graduate School of Public Health
  • Emily Elliott, Geology & Environmental Science

SHIELD: Sustainable, Holistic Infrastructure for Enabling Life-Cycle-Aware Detectors
Alex Jones, Electrical & Computer Engineering

Managing the Water-Energy Nexus for Shale Gas Production—Connecting Life Cycle Assessment with Process Systems Engineering 
Vikas Khanna, Civil & Environmental Engineering

Measuring the Effect of Grid Voltage on Building Energy Labs
Thomas McDermott, Electrical & Computer Engineering