Solution Areas Program

The Solution Areas Program is the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability’s initiative for funding ambitious, partner-engaged, interdisciplinary research on the most pressing sustainability challenges of our time. The program is organized around eight thematic areas — Climate, Water, Energy, Food, Cities, Nature, Platforms and Tools for Decision-Making, and Risk, Resilience and Adaptation — each representing a domain where integrated, systems-level research can generate transformative real-world impact.

Addressing systems-level sustainability challenges requires multi-disciplinary  teams of researchers partnering with key decision-makers — governments, NGOs, communities, industry, and practitioners — to co-define problems, co-produce knowledge, and co-develop solutions that can reach scale.

The program offers two sequential funding instruments, designed to support faculty at different stages of project development.

This is one of several funding opportunities for Stanford faculty. Since 2025, the school has awarded Solution Area - Integrative Projects grants to nine projects.

Apply for a Solution Area - Integrative Projects grant

Stanford faculty may learn how to engage with the Solution Area communities and grant process through the school’s Faculty Funding Opportunities on the intranet or reach out to Sarah Sandoval.