MCSC Seed Awards – MIT Climate & Sustainability Consortium

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.

2024 MCSC Seed Awards Program

Now Accepting Proposals: 2024 Seed Awards Program

The MCSC is now accepting proposals for its 2024 Seed Awards Program. Please read more.

2022 Projects

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.

Key Dates

Here are the key dates for the 2024 MCSC Seed Awards Program:

RFP issued: June 10, 2024
Grant application deadline: August 1, 2024
Notifications made: August 21, 2024

FAQs

What is the review process for the proposals?

The proposal awards process will be overseen by the MCSC leadership team as well as the MCSC Faculty Steering Committee. The criteria for selection is based on relevance to the consortium’s mission and importance to climate and sustainability.

I am interested in working with the Consortium, but don’t fit the criteria to apply for the MCSC Seed Awards. How else can I get involved?

Please visit our Faculty Opportunity page to see how we might be able to work together, including collaborating with our members companies, mentoring MCSC Impact Fellows, and hiring UROPs.

Should I still apply if my project is not directly related to an MCSC focus area, but is still relevant or related to your work?

We welcome any proposal that is relevant to climate and sustainability. Please reach out if you would like input on the relevance of your topic to the consortium’s areas of focus. We expect to fund exceptional proposals in other areas.

Are letters of support from industry necessary as part of the application process?

No; the MCSC can link teams to our member companies after submission if that is of interest.