Environmental Venture Projects and Realizing Environmental Innovation Program

Environmental Venture Projects and Realizing Environmental Innovation Program is sponsored by Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. This program provides seed grants for interdisciplinary research projects that seek to identify solutions to pressing problems of the environment and sustainability.

Realizing Environmental Innovation Program | Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment Meet two of our REIP awardees working together on a clean water solution Realizing Environmental Innovation Program The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment is committed to supporting interdisciplinary research that addresses important environmental problems and leads to implemented solutions.

The Stanford Woods Institute seeks to advance innovative solutions that private market, public policy and individual stakeholders can adopt and are of significant consequence in solving pressing environmental challenges facing people and the planet. These innovative solutions can include, but are not limited to, novel technologies, practices, approaches to behavior change, public policies or some combination.

Announcing our 2025 Awardees Funded Research News and Features 2026 applications are closed. Applications are expected to reopen in November. Please consult the Priorities, Guidelines, Instructions and Budget Guide for insights into the program and what is required.

Only Principal Investigators with AC or MCL status were eligible to apply. Contact Brian Sharbono, Director of Programs ( sharbono@stanford. edu ) for more information.

Collaboration Meets Innovation: Environmental Venture Projects and Realizing Environmental Innovation Program (white paper) Realizing Environmental Innovation Program The Realizing Environmental Innovation Program (REIP) is intended to provide next stage funding to PIs to move existing interdisciplinary environmental research projects toward actual solutions implemented by public stakeholders and private market actors.

To be considered, projects should demonstrate both significant progress in identifying solutions and strong potential by private market or public end users to adopt the discoveries and meaningfully address environmental problems . PIs with the most competitive LOIs that strongly fit the priorities and guidelines of the program will be invited for an interview.

The purpose of the interview is to answer questions about the project and to actively explore the potential for establishing a translational advising team and external partnerships. The research projects deemed most promising in terms of achieving environmental solutions and most relevant to Woods focal areas will be considered for award.

Additionally, invited proposals will be sent to Stanford's new Ethics and Society Review Board for any ideas and comments for applying PIs to consider regarding the work. NOTE: The Stanford Woods Institute partners with resources across Stanford and increasingly outside the university to help faculty identify needed translational resources for their REIP projects. Please contact Brian Sharbono at sharbono@stanford.

edu , if you are interested in opportunities to gain early advising for your project as you develop your Letter of Intent for the coming year's application cycle. Each PI (Lead and Co-) must be a member of the Academic Council or Medical Center Line. Please verify that both PI and co-PI are PI eligible.

Faculty members may only be Lead PI on one REIP application at a time. Likewise a faculty member may not apply for a Woods Institute REIP grant and an EVP grant in the same application cycle. Faculty members are also restricted from being the Lead PI on more than one active grant from the EVP Program or REIP Program.

However, faculty may be the Lead PI on consecutive grants from the EVP program and/or REIP program. In the case of a consecutive award, a Lead PI applying for a new award will need to have any existing, open grant award from either EVP or REIP set to close, and have the required financial and narrative reports of the current award submitted before the new award can begin.

The REI Program seeks later stage projects that, similar to the Woods Institute’s long-standing Environmental Venture Projects (EVP) program: Are high-risk, transformative and have the potential to produce solutions to major global environmental challenges; Build on and extend interdisciplinary collaborations among faculty; and Address challenges within one or more of the Woods’ seven focal areas, which include: oceans, ecosystem services and conservation, public health, freshwater, climate, food security, and sustainable development.

Proposed projects should: Represent one or more of the above program priorities; Contribute towards a solution to a major global environmental challenge; Incorporate a clear strategy and pathway for moving existing research toward an implementable solution and demonstrate how additional funding will help move the project along that pathway; Incorporate a clear strategy and pathway for moving existing research toward an implementable solution and demonstrate how additional funding will help move the project along that pathway; Involve PIs at Stanford from at least two separate disciplines (For assistance identifying possible co-investigators, please visit the Stanford Woods Institute faculty and researchers directory ); Document how the collaborative effort will be stronger than the sum of disciplinary parts; Demonstrate that significant research progress has already been accomplished and results are promising; Demonstrate interest on the part of external stakeholders in the solution concepts of the project; Explain why the project is at a stage where outside funding is not yet available, yet make a strong case that continued advancement holds real promise for outside financial support; While former Stanford Woods EVP grant winners are eligible, faculty teams need not have received an EVP grant to be eligible.

An REIP Lead PI may not be Lead PI on an active EVP grant at the time the REIP project period commences. The research committee will consider projects with budgets up $500,000 maximum over three years.

In Focus: Realizing Environmental Innovation Program More REIP spotlight stories The tap trust intervention 2025 | Public Health | North America Protecting communities in California’s oil refinery phase-out 2025 | Energy, Climate | North America Reducing the rate of sea level rise by slowing glacial motion 2025 | Climate | North America Bringing blue foods into the school meals program in Indonesia 2025 | Public Health, Oceans | North America Combating illegal fishing with satellite data and analytics 2024 | Oceans, Conservation | South America, Global Developing eco-friendly sunscreen with natural nanoparticles 2024 | Oceans, Public Health | Global Using Data Science to Enhance Environmental Law Enforcement 2024 | Freshwater, Sustainability | North America Reducing Methane Emissions from Rice Fields Improving Nutrition, Food Security, and Livelihoods with Blue Foods 2023 | Oceans, Food Security | Indonesia Using social input to identify carbon reduction pathways Recovering resources from wastewater affordably and sustainably 2023 | Freshwater | North America Carbon- and energy-efficient water reuse for irrigation Combating Deforestation Linked to Human Trafficking 2023 | Conservation | South America Mitigating lead and greenhouse gas emissions in EV battery recycling 2022 | Public Health | Asia Developing ocean-friendly sunscreens 2022 | Conservation, Oceans Sustaining the Upper Colorado River 2021 | Freshwater | North America 2021 | Natural Capital, Public Health Empowering small-scale fishers 2021 | Oceans | Pacific Ocean Combatting the illegal wildlife trade 2021 | Conservation | Africa Making Agriculture More Sustainable 2020 | Conservation, Food Security, Sustainability | No Continent Biosensors for Real-time Sensing of the Marine Environment 2020 | Oceans | No Continent 2020 | Freshwater | North America 2019 | Food Security | Asia 2019 | Freshwater | North America Ending Forced Labor in Fishing 2019 | Other, Oceans | No Continent 2018 | Climate, Oceans | North America Optimizing Groundwater Recharge 2018 | Freshwater | North America 2018 | Climate | North America Open Space Management Model 2017 | Natural Capital | North America 2017 | Natural Capital | No Continent Girls Learning Environment and Energy (GLEE) National Dissemination Project 2016 | Climate | North America A New Extreme Event Analysis Tool in Support of the UN Paris Agreement 2016 | Climate | Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America Lotus Water: Safe Water Solutions for Developing Cities Integrating Coastal Vulnerability Modeling and Land-Use Planning Strategies 2015 | Oceans | North America