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Purpose of the Ignition Grant Program |
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One
of the most meaningful ways to enable innovation and discovery in the environmental
sciences is to provide financial support for scientists and engineers to work
on new, high risk projects. Currently, most
traditional funding sources don’t support the most creative, cutting edge
research. Rather they support more tried
and true, less risky projects. The Earth
System Initiative Ignition Grant Program seeks to bridge this gap, to allow
scientists and engineers to do the preliminary research and generate the data
they need to then pursue large amounts of funding from traditional sources.
Each
$50,000 grant not only has an immediate impact on enabling the exploration of a
great idea, but the more our program builds, more great ideas crystallize and we build on MIT’s
renowned culture of innovation and cross-disciplinary collaboration. This is
how discovery and innovation in the environmental sciences can be catalyzed by
your support.
Click here for a printable version of the current Ignition Grants packet
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$500,000 Milestone Reached in First Year |
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The
Ignition Grant program started in July 2006, and during the course of the first
year has funded ten $50,000 grants for a total of $500,000 in gifts to specific
projects within the Earth System Initiative portfolio. These projects range from simulations of
global ocean ecosystems, potential impacts of artificial ocean fertilization,
and environmental semiconductor design, to harnessing wave energy, designing
hybrid generators for rural Africa, and researching environmentally-conscious
development of the carbon nanotube industry.
Click here to check out all the projects funded in the Ignition Grants Class of 2007
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Program Starts with Winning Record |
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The
very first two Ignition Grants have already resulted in both projects receiving
subsequent grants from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the National
Science Foundation, respectively.
Professor Ed Boyle, who received the first $50,000 grant his lab’s work
in measuring the potential impacts of artificial ocean fertilization agrees
that “If [graduate student] Seth hadn’t received the Ignition Grant in August
2006, there is a high likelihood my lab would not have received the NSF funding
in Spring 2007.” In this case, the
return on $50,000 can be defined in terms of the subsequent $650,000 grant
given over the next three years.
 Arunas Chesonis, Chairman of ESI's Directors Council, gives graduate student Seth John the inaugural Ignition Grant in July 2006. Seth's subsequent research contributed to Professor Ed Boyle's successful application for NSF funding in March 2007. |
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