Science Serving Society http://environmentalchange.nd.edu
The Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative’s research tackles the interrelated problems of invasive species, land use, and climate change—focusing on their synergistic impacts on water resources. ND-ECI provides new intellectual capital and infrastructure at Notre Dame for interdisciplinary teams of faculty who are spearheading innovative research programs in order to help solve complex environmental problems identified as “Grand Challenges” by the National Academy of Sciences.
ND-ECI is one of several Strategic Research Investments that have been made by the University of Notre Dame in recent years allocating a total $80 million of Notre Dame’s own money to advance the scope, excellence and visibility of the University’s research enterprise. The Strategic Research Investments are the first steps in a bold commitment of internal funds and other resources, supplementing funding from external grants and gifts, all intended to advance excellence in research.
With approximately 40 affiliated faculty members who have a wide array of expertise, ND-ECI is dedicated to globally significant multidisciplinary research and a commitment to making that research applicable and directly relevant to policymakers, businesses, the nonprofit community and the general public.
By identifying solutions that produce the greatest gains in environmental health and social welfare, ND-ECI embodies the vision of “science serving society,” in which scholars from science, engineering, social sciences, humanities and policy contribute objective analysis, motivated by a passionate commitment to translational research, that serves nature and humans. The goal of ND-ECI is to provide solutions that minimize the trade-offs between human welfare and environmental health where trade-offs are unavoidable, and to discover win-win solutions where they are possible.
