The Study Abroad Sustainability Research Fellows program was founded in Spring 2025, when the Nanovic Institute began offering students studying at Notre Dame hubs in Dublin, Galway, London, and Rome the funding to pursue independent, sustainability-focused research projects. After conducting their field research abroad, students brought their findings back to Notre Dame and presented their work at a public event, sharing their "cross-cultural sustainability insights" with the Notre Dame community. The funding and mentorship provided allowed these emerging undergraduate researchers to flourish as they pursued their projects from proposal to presentation. In addition to applying knowledge learned in one nation to another, the cohort-based model gave students the chance to connect with like-minded students in pursuing a more sustainable future.
The program has since evolved and is now available to students studying abroad in any location offered by ND Global, thanks to the generous support of additional sponsor institutes: the Keough-
Applications are currently open through November 1, 2026, for the next cohort (Spring 2027) of the Sustainability Research Fellows program.