EPA announces sustainable project development grants for Georgia Institute of Technology, 37 other universities

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced 38 university student teams that will receive funding under its People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) grant program last week, including a team from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

“This year’s P3 teams have created innovative research projects that tackle some of our most pressing environmental and public health challenges,” EPA Science Advisor and Office of Research and Development Deputy Assistant Administrator Dr. Thomas A. Burke said. “These students have the opportunity to bring their exciting new ideas for innovation in sustainability to life, by expanding their learning experience beyond the classroom.”

The P3 program provides student teams with up to $15,000 to develop innovative projects that will compete for further funding at the National Sustainable Design Expo this spring. After the Expo, some teams will move forward to a second phase and receive up to $75,000 to enhance their projects.

Past teams have used the P3 grant program as a jumping point to create sustainable businesses, like the Oberlin College 2004 team, which went on to start Lucid Designs, or the Harvard University 2010 team that started One Earth Designs.