Skip to content ↓

Impact Fellows Program

The MIT Climate & Sustainability Consortium (MCSC) Impact Fellowship Program is a postdoctoral opportunity for individuals who want to transcend academia & industry to apply their expertise to near-term change for a more sustainable future. MCSC Impact Fellows will work with MIT researchers and consortium industry members – in collaboration with external organizations and communities – to implement solutions needed for global economic transformation to address the global climate change and sustainability crisis. Throughout the program, Impact Fellows will prepare for leadership positions within the sustainability domain in a wide range of contexts, as well as prepare to drive research that advances breakthrough scalable solutions towards accelerated change.

Program Objectives

The MCSC Impact Fellowship is a unique opportunity for postdoctoral scholars to expand their skillset by working in the context of bridging academic and industry disciplines, and establishing meaningful partnerships, to achieve real-world impact in sustainability. The goal of the program is to stimulate original interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work coupled to the development of solutions that address the world’s most pressing sustainability challenges.

The core Impact Fellowship tenets, particularly in the program’s first year, include:

  • Developing and deepening connections with faculty, students, consortium members and external parties to achieve real-world implementation of viable sustainability solutions.
  • Contributing key ideas to and supporting the MCSC focal topics which include materials and supply chain circularity, decarbonizing tough sectors and carbon removal; participating in programs around these topics and helping to draw connections across consortium members, and facilitating engagement with impacted communities as well as policymakers, while also contributing to educational activities and entrepreneurial efforts.
  • Playing an important role in working with other fellows and researchers in sustainability fields, across campus, who are trained in skills such as science communication, interdisciplinary collaboration, and policy.
  • Building a core group of leaders capable of creating effective, viable, and scalable solutions to the most serious climate change and sustainability challenges.

We are hiring!

We are currently hiring for two Impact Fellow positions. Read more about each one:

Social Science Impact Fellow

Transportation Impact Fellow

Key Program Details

Structure: Impact Fellows will participate in a few months-long program including problem formulation and solution development activities involving communication, collaboration, policy, and career design.

Terms: The MCSC Impact Fellowship Program is a community of Fellows who are mostly on two-year appointments. Fellows start at various times, so there will be around eight to sixteen fellows in the program throughout the year.

Interdisciplinarity: Impact Fellows can spend variable portions of their fellowship period at MIT, with industry collaborators, in other relevant facilities, or in the field as dictated by their areas of inquiry. The Fellow’s appointment will be in the MCSC to begin with but may transition to a more discipline-relevant department as the Fellow’s interests and project goals are refined.

Development: All Impact Fellows will be advised, at first, by the directors of the MCSC. Additional mentorship will be provided via access to career services, including CV construction, interview preparation, workshops designed specifically for postdocs including postdoc leadership and teaching programs, as well as community building activities. Please note that Impact Fellows will not have traditional 1-to-1 advisor pairings, but instead will be advised in a group setting for at least the first portion of their fellowship.

Impact Fellowship Candidates

The MCSC Impact Fellowship Program is looking for creative, highly motivated, and high performing researchers with interests in interdisciplinary training and broad skill development, with a focus and aim on accelerating the necessary global transition in the face of the climate crisis. The program is seeking Fellows who come from a broad range of backgrounds – including engineering, science, social sciences, economics, urban planning, management, and statistics/data science – and welcomes applications from any scholarly field. Candidates, who must have recently completed a Ph.D. in a relevant field by the start of the fellowship, should be passionate and informed about climate and sustainability, as the projects they will focus on will be related to these key themes, which are central to the consortium. Please note that Impact Fellows cannot hold another academic or industry appointment during the Fellowship period.

Back to top