The UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge awarded its second round of competitive research grants this month, providing $1 million to eight new projects led by UCLA researchers who will study self-driving cars, improve ways to capture and distribute solar power, map wild mammals in urban L.A., and more.
The Sustainable LA Grand Challenge is a university-wide research initiative to transition the Los Angeles region to 100 percent renewable energy, 100 percent local water, and an enhanced ecosystem and human health by 2050. This second annual round of research grants awarded by Sustainable LA focuses on renewable energy, transportation and urban ecosystems.
The competitive grants are possible thanks to the Anthony and Jeanne Pritzker Family Foundation, which provides funding for this Grand Challenge, including research that will implement the Sustainable LA Work Plan. Their generous $5 million gift is supporting at least three rounds of similar grants from 2016 to 2018.
ISG is pleased to announce that Jessica Lynch Alfaro (PI, ISG), together with Tony Friscia (IBP), Jamie Lloyd-Smith (EEB), Chris Kelty (ISG), and Katherine Prager (EEB) has been awarded a UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge Grant of $225,000 for the project, “Urban Ecology of Los Angeles Mammals: Biodiversity, Pathogen Risks, and Public Perceptions.”