On a biannual basis, the Environmental Institute awards grants to UVA faculty in a variety of disciplines that advance solutions to tough environmental challenges. In this cycle, the Institute is pleased to announce four new awards. These projects represent the novel and interdisciplinary approaches required to address some of the most pressing climate crises.
CoLab grants
CoLab grants are awarded to novel interdisciplinary pan-University collaborations focused on climate change research with high potential for societal impact. Learn more about CoLab grants. In this funding cycle, the UVA Environmental Institute announces the award of the following CoLab grants:
Title: Community Climate Knowledge and Multimodal Climate AI
Team: Mona Sloane, Chirag Agarwal, Antonios Mamalakis, Aashka Dave
Description: This project develops a new approach to climate modeling that brings community knowledge directly into artificial intelligence (AI) systems assessing climate impacts. While today’s AI models excel at large-scale forecasting, they often miss the local details that shape how people experience climate change. This research addresses this gap by integrating unstructured, place-based knowledge (such as local records, oral histories, and images) into advanced multimodal climate models.
This research has the capacity to improve public decision-making, support fairer allocation of adaptation resources, and integrate actual lived experiences into the tools used to plan for climate change.
Team: Sheetal Sekhri, Andrew Wilson, and Chirag Agarwal
Description: This project tackles a persistent and under-measured environmental challenge: agricultural residue burning, a major source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Existing satellite monitoring systems are not precise enough to detect fires at the scale of individual fields, limiting the effectiveness of both enforcement and policy responses. This research addresses this gap by developing an AI framework that integrates high-resolution satellite imagery with on-the-ground data.
Team: Geoff Geise, Andres Clarens, Osman Ozbulut, Ehsan Baharlou
Description: This project reimagines concrete as a climate solution rather than a carbon liability. By integrating biochar (a stable, carbon‑rich material made from biomass) into low‑carbon cement, this project aims to create concrete that can store carbon while delivering new functionality. The team is developing biochar‑enhanced concrete that can store energy, provide self‑heating for deicing, improve thermal insulation in buildings, and enable carbon‑negative construction through enhanced carbon uptake.
Rapid grants
Rapid grants are awarded to support time-sensitive research requiring bridge funding and/or immediate impact funding. This includes research on environmental disasters to both inform responses to the ongoing climate-based crises and anticipate future climate-based emergencies. It also includes time-sensitive funding needs for ongoing research aligned with the Institute's mission. Learn more about Rapid grants. In this funding cycle, the UVA Environmental Institute announces the award of the following Rapid grant:
Researcher: Somayeh Asadi
Description: In October 2025, severe flooding linked to the remnants of Typhoon Halong inundated Alaska Native communities in the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta, displacing residents and damaging homes and infrastructure. Asadi returned to the area in the spring of 2026 to collect time‑sensitive post‑flood data from the same homes, along with additional residences that experienced significant inundation. By comparing pre‑ and post‑flood conditions, the study will quantify changes in indoor mold, bacterial, and heavy metal contamination in drinking water, and heavy metals and microplastics in soil.
The research will help identify environmental conditions that pose the greatest risks during recovery and inform more effective disaster response strategies.