Postdoctoral Funding Request

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Fall 2026 Call for Postdoctoral Research Funding 

The UVA Environmental Institute seeks research projects from UVA faculty for which the Institute will recruit and (co)fund an interdisciplinary 1.5-year Postdoctoral Research position through its Climate Fellows Program. Post-doctoral Research Associates should be advised by two faculty from different disciplines.

All project proposals must be interdisciplinary in nature and examine the intersection between data centers and communities. 

Proposals that meaningfully engage stakeholders and practitioners outside the university, such as community members, local governments, leading data-center developers and operators, public-health experts, economists, and policy/legislative/regulatory experts will be prioritized.

Possible topics could include, but are not limited, to:

  • Assessments of sensory impacts and their mitigation (including those related to noise and light) from data centers
  • Baseline health information about people living and/or working near/in data centers
  • Longitudinal studies about human wellbeing and health management practices or adaptive behaviors/practices of residents living close to and/or employed by data centers 
  • Air quality (measurements) in and around data centers and potential associations with human wellbeing outcomes
  • Ecological assessments of data center presence (including, but not limited to wildlife, wetlands, and other) 
  • Data center carbon emissions and management
  • Intersections of water or land conservation and data center development
  • Assessments of potential community benefits that match local priorities, including scholarships, science and environmental programs, cultural investments, and direct financial contributions.
  • Fiscal and economic tradeoffs, including tax revenue, tax abatements, infrastructure costs, construction employment, permanent jobs, and the net public return on tax incentives.
  • Land-use governance practices, including zoning and other (permitting) review processes

The Institute will support suitable projects by: 

  • Funding a Postdoctoral Research Associate for up to 1.5 years. 
  • The Postdoc will receive a salary and full employee benefits.
  • Professional development support. 
  • Strong social support from a cohort of fellow postdoctoral researchers and staff. 

Eligibility

  • Applicants must be UVA faculty.
  • The proposed project must tackle the research problem from more than one disciplinary perspective. 
  • Project must have at least two faculty advisors/mentors from different schools or departments.

Evaluation Criteria

The most competitive proposals will be those that:

  • Align with the Environmental Institute’s mission.
  • Are likely to contribute to sustained research excellence at UVA.
  • Facilitate an intellectually diverse climate research community. 

Submission Deadline: November 15, 2026

Submission Requirements

Word Limit: 3,500 words 

Submissions must include the following:

  1. Project Title
  2. Describe your project. Tell us about the motivating research questions that your team seeks to address and explain how a post-doc would work together with the mentors to answer those questions including details about the methods they would deploy and the data/datasets they would use. (1500 words max)
  3. How does your project contribute to the Environmental Institute's ‘Global-to-Community’ mission of bridging scales and diversifying voices in climate science (or on climate research, writ large)? (500 words max)
  4. What research skills, competencies and/or methodological approaches would you like your ideal postdoctoral fellow to possess? (500 words max)
  5. How do you plan to diversify intellectual perspectives on climate research through this proposal and the postdoctoral research associate you want to recruit? (250 words max)  
  6. How do you plan to sustain this work beyond the postdoc’s term? You may include details of any available matching funds you might have to support the cost of hiring a postdoc and grants you are pursuing and/or intend to pursue.  
  7. List all the PIs and mentors on this project who will work support the postdoc you intend to recruit (Include all names, designations, departments/schools, and email addresses)

Email the complete application to Henry Boachi at henryb@virginia.edu or acj2ak@virginia.edu with the subject line “Data Center Impacts Postdoc Proposal” by midnight, November 15, 2026.

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Please contact Henry Boachi (acj2ak@virginia.edu), Program Manager, with questions.