The Sustainability Institute is excited to announce the recipients of the 2026 Sustainability Research Seed Grant program. SI awarded over $300,000 in funding to 12 faculty-led team projects focused on advancing interdisciplinary knowledge and solutions in SI’s priority areas of AI, circular economy, climate adaptation, energy, health communities, and water. 

Among the projects selected is "Earth Mother – Indigenous Latin America and Sustainable Environments," a project that brings SPPO into interdisciplinary dialogue across the humanities, social, and environmental sciences at Ohio State and with community partners in Amazonia and highland Ecuador. The project is an intercultural, transdisciplinary collaboration supporting community initiatives in reforestation, biodiversity resilience, sustainable water systems, education and cultural knowledge and livelihoods connected to the land. 

The project involves OSU students, faculty and staff in understandings of diverse ecological realities and indigenous alternative relationships with nature, epistemological plurality in ecological practices, and the interrelations among community, ecosystem restoration, economy and indigenous knowledge. The project supports co-production in research data collection, analysis and documentation for the benefit of both the partnering and OSU communities.

Research Team: Michelle Wibbelsman, Associate Professor, Spanish and Portuguese; Bryan Mark, Professor, Geography/Byrd; Jo Peacock, Assistant Professor, SENR; Amy Youngs, Associate Professor, Art; Emma Kline, Lab Specialist, Art; Maria Jose Iturralde and Daniel Bryan with Pachaysana Foundation (external)