Northwestern Wins Grant in 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund

The U.S. Department of State, Partners of the Americas, and NAFSA: Association of International Educators announced the project entitled, “Managing Water, Energy & Environmental Resources to Enhance Prosperity in the Americas:  An Environmental Engineering Partnership,” submitted by Northwestern University and Universidad Nacional de San Martín as one of the ten winning proposals for funding by the new Innovation Fund Grant as part of the “Argentina-U.S. Workforce Development” competition sponsored by Chevron and the U.S. Department of State.

The Innovation Fund inspires U.S. universities and colleges to team up with higher education institutions in the rest of the Western Hemisphere to create partnerships that construct bridges of connectivity, increase academic exchanges, provide access to training opportunities, and strengthen regional education cooperation and competitiveness throughout the Americas. This Innovation Fund competition will facilitate ten new higher education partnerships between universities and colleges in the United States and higher education institutions in Argentina. The ten grant-winning teams announced will implement new groundbreaking academic and training programs for students.

The partnership between the two universities is led by Professor Kimberly Gray, Chair of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University and Professor Roberto Candal, Secretary of Research in the 3iA Institute for Environmental Engineering at the  Universidad Nacional de San Martin in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Universidad Nacional de San Martin will generate, develop, and strengthen relations with Northwestern University through a new program that will focus on energy and water conservation. Ph.D. students from Argentina will travel to the U.S. to attend weekly research seminars, rotate through research labs, participate in field trips, and attend weekly graduate student seminars at Northwestern. This bilateral exchange will strengthen institutional collaboration between the two universities, while also allowing Ph.D. students to explore environmental issues and engineering solutions at the international level.

The 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund is the dynamic public-private sector partnership between the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Embassies, Partners of the Americas, NAFSA: Association of International Educators, companies, and foundations working together to stimulate and support connectivity between higher education networks throughout the Americas. The Innovation Fund inspires U.S. universities and colleges to team up with higher education institutions in the rest of the Western Hemisphere to work together to create sustainable partnerships, provide more access to student exchanges/training opportunities, and strengthen regional education cooperation and competiveness in the Americas. To date since January 2014, the Innovation Fund has awarded 178 grants to teams of 350 higher education institutions from 25 countries and 41 U.S. states. Over 1,850 higher education institutions form part of the Innovation Network – over 1,000 universities and colleges in the United States.

Link to press release here.

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