Apply Now: Undergraduate Sustainability Fellowships Open
By Sarah Bender
The Sustainability Initiative is pleased to partner with the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholar Development to offer five new Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships. These fellowships will fund summer research focused specifically on the Sustainable Development Goals, also known as the Global Goals. Fellowships applications are open now, and close on Feb. 18, 2026.
Open to all undergraduate students who meet Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) requirements, SURF-Sustainability will award $4500 for eight to 10 weeks of full-time summer research that contributes to the Global Goals. Additionally, a $500 supplemental stipend will be provided pending satisfactory completion of additional Global Goals-related fellowship activities.
For Mellon College of Science sophomore Wendy Wang, one of last summer’s fellows, the fellowship provided valuable mentorship and structure during the summer. As a result, she was able to push her work further and refine her study.
Wang’s research focuses on how rooftop solar adoptions can impact existing power grids, and offers evidence that grids may need to be updated to preserve reliability. Her team used decades of data from Indianapolis to help predict future power outages — while also applying the framework of sustainability to the project.
“The fellowship also encouraged me to situate my technical research within the broader context of sustainability and the Global Goals,” she explained. “Most importantly, it connected me to a community of students and faculty who care about building a more sustainable future, which made the work feel part of something larger than a single research project.”
As part of the application, interested students are challenged to connect their research interests to at least three of the 17 Global Goals. These goals cover everything from access to education and gender equality to clean and affordable water and energy. As a result, most research on campus can be connected back to sustainability — and considering Global Goals can inspire new research ideas as well.
“This experience has taught me to evaluate research not just by its scientific merit but also by its potential impact on environmental and social systems,” said College of Engineering sophomore Ruoyun Xu.
Last summer, Xu used the fellowship to explore how aerosol distribution patterns correlate to weather conditions like wind speed and direction, rain intensity, and UV intensity. These aerosols can impact both climate and human health.
“Although I have decided not to move forward with research in aerosol due to a shift in personal interests, I am still doing sustainability-related research, specifically in polymer fields,” Xu continued. “In the future, I plan to actively seek collaborations and projects that align with multiple Global Goals, particularly those addressing responsible consumption and climate action.”
Fellows will also receive the opportunity to present their research as part of Speak Up!, a cross-disciplinary communication skills seminar for undergraduate summer researchers. The seminar covers when, why, and how we communicate to different, often "non-expert" audiences, through real-world oral and written communication activities focused on translating expertise and energizing audiences. At the end of the seminar, fellows make a virtual Three Minute Research Talk (3MRT).
Visit the SURF-Sustainability webpage to view a full list of requirements and apply. The application deadline is Feb. 18, 2026.