Yale Planetary Solutions (YPS) has awarded a new cohort of grants for collaborative projects aimed at solving global climate and biodiversity challenges that are too complex to be tackled within a single research discipline.
This year, YPS — a campus-wide initiative that unites leaders and experts from across Yale, and bridges academic expertise with university operations — will award more than $2 million in grants to 23 projects. The new projects represent all divisions of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, as well as eight of Yale’s professional schools.
Since 2022, YPS has awarded more than $7 million to 89 projects.
By propelling ideas into action, the new projects can empower the members of the Yale community — and communities far beyond — to improve their futures, increase prosperity, and promote well-being, said Julie Zimmerman, vice provost for planetary solutions.
“Once again, these grants showcase the extraordinary creativity and drive within the Yale community to turn bold ideas into real-world solutions for people and the planet,” Zimmerman said. “What sets this year apart is the program’s intentional redesign — supporting not only the generation of new ideas and the acceleration of promising research, but also the translation of that work into action through partnerships beyond campus.
“From faculty collaborations to community engagement, this year’s projects reflect Yale’s deep commitment to impact at scale.”
YPS’s Grant Program was re-envisioned to better support the campus community, with an eye toward practical solutions that can have a positive impact. There are now three types of grants: Initiation Grants intended to spark new ideas, Acceleration Grants that will lay the groundwork for implementation of ideas, and Constellation Grants of up to $250,000 to transform knowledge into action.
The first Constellation Grant — which supports the commercialization of ideas developed by Yale researchers to promote real-world impact — will go to Lea Winter, an assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering at the School of Engineering & Applied Science, and her team for a project to develop the first low temperature, electrified, modular approach to destroy hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerant gases at the sites of cooling equipment and storage tanks. (The grant, the largest ever awarded by YPS, will help Winter and her colleagues license the technology or start a new company.)
Lea Winter
HFCs are greenhouse gases that often leak or are released into the atmosphere. Current methods for eliminating HFCs require high temperatures applied at large, dedicated facilities.
“Refrigerants are incredibly potent greenhouse gases, but their strong chemical bonds make them challenging to destroy,” Winter said. “We’ve developed an effective and energy-efficient process for portable refrigerant destruction in our lab, and we’re excited to pilot and scale this new approach, which could potentially prevent the release of gigatons of CO2-equivalent emissions to the atmosphere.”
Other new grants will address an array of climate and biodiversity issues by:
- connecting environmental challenges to national security so future leaders in the field can best assess risks;
- designing a new computer network switch that uses energy in proportion to its network traffic, rather than consuming a significant amount of energy even when idle;
- providing the first robust data on how high temperatures affect pregnancy for women with autoimmune diseases to inform public health strategy;
- examining how ancient, river-based societies responded to extreme weather events to improve community preparedness and resiliency;
- developing a framework for responsibly managing land use in areas newly revealed by retreating glaciers;
- exploring affordable, AI-powered methods for monitoring soil carbon, laying the foundation for more farms to adopt regenerative practices;
- redesigning a food donation matching system app to reduce the amount of donated food that goes to waste; and more.
Read more about each of the 2025 seed grant recipients on the YPS website.
“These grants are integral to the mission of Yale Planetary Solutions, convening Yale’s scholarship in the sciences, arts, and humanities to power impact-focused planetary solutions,” said Scott Strobel, university provost.
“The unique interdisciplinary structure of these grants allows projects to come to fruition that, without funding from Yale Planetary Solutions, might never have happened,” Strobel said. “Each year, this opportunity empowers the Yale community and world at large to deliver tangible solutions that benefit people and the planet.”
As the new grants begin, three previous waves of grants continue to bear fruit. Among them:
- A Yale team is submitting a provisional patent for a reactive electrified membrane and storage pump for natural surface water carbon utilization — a single device that would capture and convert dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in water.
- A collaboration between the Yale School of Public Health and Music Haven gave students in New Haven Public Schools the opportunity to experiment with translating climate-related data from nature into musical compositions, using AI and visual programming. A performance of the music took place at Yale’s Center for Collaborative Arts and Media in April.
- A Yale team is developing and refining models to understand electric vehicle (EV) demand and optimize the location of EV charging infrastructure. The project is providing helpful guidance on the optimal use of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) funds remaining for Connecticut’s NEVI roll-out. The team will use Connecticut as a pilot study to establish a real-world model for use by other states.
- Yale researchers are working on a full-scale prototype of a structural assembly for construction projects that uses locally sourced, non-cementitious, unfired earth brick from construction excavation. The proposed assembly would dramatically reduce harmful CO2 equivalent emissions.
This year’s grant program is funded by the Three Cairns Climate Impact Innovation Fund with additional generous support from the Natural Carbon Solutions Fund, the Simon Bates Catalyst Fund, and the Birnbaum-Harford Planetary Solutions Translation Fund, with co-funding from the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture and the Office of the Provost AI initiatives.
