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Each year the Environmental Science and Design Research Institute (ESDRI) hosts a competitive request for proposals which are reviewed by an interdisciplinary panel, awarding seed grants with funding up to $12,000 for multidisciplinary research related to ESDRI’s wide-ranging areas of focus. These seed grants provide funds for preliminary or early-stage research, facilitating the building blocks to apply for extramural funding.

The application cycle for seed grants is typically early spring. To apply, at least one person from the research team must be an ESDRI affiliated faculty member. If you are interested in becoming an ESDRI affiliated faculty member, please email esdri@kent.edu.

This year the institute awarded three seed grants and they are thrilled to support this important and timely research!

"Two-eyed seeing in Earth observations: co-creating data tools and capacity for Earth observations data analysis in support of California’s land transfer policy"

Elaine (Lan Yin) Hsiao, PhD (Assistant Professor, School of Peace and Conflict Studies) and He Yin, PhD (Assistant Professor, Department of Geography) were awarded an ESDRI seed grant to conduct a pilot study focused on supporting the transfer of land back to California Tribal Nations using two-eyed seeing that combines both remote sensing and Indigenous knowledge. This includes identifying lands that are at risk, from stressors such as degradation or wildfire, that would benefit from Indigenous conservation. “This work has real world implications because it is taking place in a state where funds are provided for Tribes to buy back land,” says Hsiao, “Within this project we can identify lands that might be optimal for land transfer while at the same time strengthening the argument that these lands should be given back.” 

This work centers around workshops with Tribal members in which they will first meet and begin the project design process, then the core research team will bring initial research back to Tribal members, and finally the whole team will work together to pull everything they have learned into a larger project proposal for external funding. The first workshop, taking place this summer, will include “listening sessions to understand the needs of the stakeholders,” tells He, “which are much needed to guide our remote sensing work.” He is excited to begin his first remote sensing project in the environmental justice sphere, adding “What is even more exciting is that I will co-design the research with the stakeholder, rather than just working alone.”

Joining Hsiao and He on this project are undergraduate students Rae Baba (Junior, Environmental Studies with Environment, Peace, and Justice minor) and Andrew Shenal (Sophomore, Environmental Studies with Geography and GIS minors). Both are participants in the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program and are supported by ESDRI and the Anti-Racism and Equity Institute (AREI), respectively.

The research team states that the seed grant makes this co-design process possible. By creating the workshops in California, it allows them to physically meet with partners and design together, from the basic plans of the project to how data is managed. Hsiao says, “This level of collaboration requires a lot of time together to work through questions and ideas, and it is really not possible to build this trust and side-by-side cooperation otherwise.”

Find out more about this Indigenous land conservation research project 

"Unlocking secrets below: Investigating the spatial heterogeneity of carbon stabilization in Arctic lake sediments through a visual lens"

Chelsea Smith, PhD (Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Earth Sciences), Allyson Tessin, PhD (Assistant Professor, Department of Earth Sciences), and Shannon Hines (Manager, Design Innovation Hub) will be deploying a camera system to study lake sediments in an Arctic lake in Alaska with their seed grant. Lakes hold an important role in carbon sequestration, but with climate change, that carbon isn’t necessarily going to remain stored in lake sediments. “Warming causes more carbon to enter lakes from the surrounding landscape as permafrost thaws, then in turn microbes can eat that carbon, releasing carbon dioxide,” tells Smith, “However, metals, such as iron and manganese, may stabilize the carbon, making it inaccessible to microbes allowing it to eventually become buried in the sediments over time.” The group's preliminary research shows that some parts of their research lake, Lake Toolik, are high in iron, while other parts are high in manganese. This interesting feature of the lake will allow them to look at the role of each of these metals separately and see if they are doing similar or different things.

Being awarded an ESDRI seed grant allowed an increase in interdisciplinarity for this research. Smith and Tessin brought on Hines as well as Nicholas Cindrich (BE ‘24, Mechatronics Engineering Technology), to help with the planning and design of the 3D printed camera and light attachments that will fasten to their sediment cori