MCSC Seed Awards

The MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium is a cross-institute effort, spanning all five schools and the College of Computing, aimed at accelerating implementation of large-scale, cross-sector, real-world solutions that address global climate and sustainability (C&S) challenges. The MCSC works to rapidly scale solutions by intensifying C&S efforts through industry collaboration linked with MIT expertise across interdisciplinary domains. The MCSC Seed Awards Program is one of several ways that the MCSC seeks principal investigator (PI) engagement to link the work of the consortium to ongoing and emerging C&S efforts on campus.

The MCSC’s efforts in implementation focus on assembling teams of MIT researchers who can leverage the expertise and interest of the MCSC member companies to amplify and extend the Institute’s strong foundation in C&S. An outcome of the MCSC’s work to date is the launch of several initial focus areas. Many of these areas offer significant opportunity to link with existing efforts on campus as well as the Climate Grand Challenge teams. The MCSC Seed Awards Program seeks input and engagement from interested researchers in the MIT community related to these areas, although proposals in other C&S areas are also of interest.

In October 2024, the MCSC awarded nine projects over $1 million in the second MCSC Seed Awards cycle. The winning projects are led by principal investigators across all five of MIT’s schools and the Schwarzman College of Computing.

In May 2022, the MCSC awarded 20 projects a total of $5 million over two years in its first-ever 2022 MCSC Seed Awards program. The winning projects are led by principal investigators across all five of MIT’s schools.

Application information for the next Seed Awards Program will be provided here when announced.