This grant supports the launch of new a mentoring program at the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE), a leading professional society, to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in energy and environmental economics. Led by Jill Caviglia-Harris at Salisbury University, the AERE Scholars Program will engage a diverse set of scholars interested in a broad range of research questions, support early-career energy and environmental economists as they move through their career, and create a more inclusive culture for scholars from historically underrepresented groups. The year-long program pairs early-career faculty with more established mentors in the field and also involves peer-mentoring activities. This mentorship program will culminate in a workshop at the end of the year. AERE has selected 20 mentee-mentor pairs for its inaugural group and plans to recruit 10 mentee-mentor pairs in future years.

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is the White House Department tasked with coordinating efforts across the federal government to develop and implement sound science and technology policy, evaluating the effectiveness of federal scientific research budgets and programs, and advising the President on scientific, engineering, and technological aspects of executive governance. Energy and environmental topics are playing an increasingly important role in OSTP’s work, with a consequent need for high quality scientific expertise to help inform policy advisory activities.  This grant supports an expansion of the Day One Project, an initiative by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) that works with government agencies to identify the scientific and technical expertise needed to effectively fulfill their functions, to bring energy and environment expertise into OSTP.   Grant funds will enable an expansion of the Day One Impact Fellows program, allowing FAS to recruit a scholar with expertise on energy and environmental topics and place this individual within OSTP for a one-year fellowship, giving OSTP access to the impartial scholarly expertise needed to effectively fill its advisory functions. This grant also provides resources to develop a stronger cohort network of Impact Fellows working on energy and environment issues in different agencies.

Many low carbon technologies require the use and deployment of relatively rare metals and minerals in their manufacturing and construction. For instance, next generation batteries require lithium, cobalt, and nickel. High-efficiency motors utilize neodymium and dysprosium.  Platinum and platinum-like elements are essential for new fuel cells and in many other clean manufacturing processes.  As the economy decarbonizes, demand for these elements will rise and with that rise in demand raises a number of economic, policy, and environmental issues, such as how supply chain bottlenecks might raise prices for these rare metals and minerals, how they might be reused or recycled, and whether they will be disposed of responsibly. This grant supports a project by Morgan Bazilian of the Colorado School of Mines that will attempt to address critical gaps in our knowledge in this area. Grant funds will allow Bazilian to improve, upgrade and expand an empirically-informed model he has created of the metal and mineral needs of a wide range of clean energy technologies. Drawing both on industry sources and on published work by researchers, the model will eventually cover 25 technology areas and 55 distinct metals and minerals.  Bazilian will then use the improved model to conduct an analysis of critical metal and mineral demand and re-use scenarios under a range of different assumptions about growth rates, supply constraints, and recycling options. The project will pay particular attention to the prospects for recycling previously used critical metals and minerals so they can be re-utilized in the clean energy sector.  The analysis will produce a more robust picture than ever before about how different scenarios of clean energy growth will affect demand for, and productive lifecycle of, critical metals and minerals.

The Center for Diverse Leadership in Science (CDLS) at UCLA is the nation’s first university center focusing on diversity in the environmental sciences. Founded in 2017, CDLS aims to create opportunities for underrepresented people to gain education and experience that equips them with leadership skills and to serve as a model of diversity and inclusion across the nation. This grant supports the center’s director, Aradhna Tripati, in expanding two of CDLS’ main objectives—partnering with Minority Serving Institutions to widen pathways to STEM education and organizing a fellowship program that trains future decision-makers working across a variety of academic fields. Grant funds will allow CDLS to further its leadership development program, strengthen relationships with its institutional partners, and develop its strategic, communications, and outreach activities.

EconoFact (https://econofact.org) is a website that specializes in disseminating non-partisan and rigorous analysis from leading economists. Their work is edited in the form of short memos and podcasts that are accessible and digestible to a broad audience. Michael Klein, the leader of this effort, has assembled a network of more than 100 prominent economists who regularly contribute to EconoFact. Topics covered include employment, the costs of pollution, debts and deficits, household finance, and Medicaid reform, among others. Since its 2018 launch, the site has garnered almost 1.9 million pageviews and its work has been mentioned in major news outlets, including the PBS Newshour, the New Yorker, the Washington Post, The New York Times, The Financial Times, and NPR’s “All Things Considered”. By 2020, EconoFact had become an important source for analysis of the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, publishing more than 50 memos and 18 podcasts on the topic. Funds from this grant provide support for the continued operation and expansion of EconoFact, including the production of 150 new memos, 100 podcasts, and 36 video pieces, providing accessible, expert economic analysis on topics relevant to policymakers and the public alike.

Over the last two decades, Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) has been highly influential in helping women from diverse backgrounds succeed as Ph.D. students in mathematics. EDGE’s success was nationally recognized in 2018, when it received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. This grant supports Ami Radunskaya, professor of mathematics at Pomona College and the current chair of the EDGE Board, in her efforts to increase diversity in advanced mathematics education. Grant funds will help finance the next three EDGE Summer Programs (2022-2024). These four-week summer events are meant to help prepare women entering mathematics Ph.D. programs by teaching critical content, developing necessary graduate school skills, establishing mentoring channels, and growing a community of supportive mathematicians. Participants will attend intensive technical workshops, problem solving sessions, presentations, seminars, and annual summer symposiums to build their networks. Grant funds will also help to produce the EDGE Notes Book, an open collection of notes, problems, and solutions for those unable to attend.

Many policies, like cigarette and alcohol taxes, are partly motivated by concerns that people can fail to act in their own best interests. Behavioral public economics (BPE) is a field that seeks to apply insights from behavioral economics to understand and evaluate such policies—with the ultimate goal of creating better policies. Despite its potential for improving policies, and lives, BPE remains a relatively niche and undersubscribed field at universities. This grant supports a team of BPE scholars working to change that. Douglas Bernheim at Stanford University, together with Hunt Allcott at Harvard University and Dmitry Taubinsky at the University of California, Berkeley, are launching a bootcamp to help grow the BPE research community. Grant funds will allow the team to run biennial two-day bootcamps at the National Bureau of Economic Research’s offices, which will include training sessions, keynote lectures, and networking opportunities for early-career scholars. To ensure educational offerings reach the widest possible audience, the effort includes focused outreach to women and underrepresented groups as well as the online posting of recorded sessions, expanding access to those unable to participate in person.