SEEDS Faculty Partners

The SEEDS Sustainability Program supports faculty to integrate sustainability research into courses, student thesis or independent studies topics, provides project management support for the project duration, while providing students with impactful applied experiences in collaborating with UBC campus staff and community partners to advance UBC’s ambitious sustainability and wellbeing commitments.

By participating in a SEEDS collaboration, you can:  

• Get support to integrate applied sustainability research projects into your courses 
• Offer practical and impactful sustainability learning and research experiences with your undergraduate or graduate students in a course, independent studies or thesis project 
• Connect your curriculum to advance UBC’s sustainability and wellbeing commitments with student-led research and partnerships that explore and address critical societal challenges by utilizing “Campus as a Living Laboratory”
• Gain access to SEEDS network of campus operational staff and community partners who serve as the “client” on each applied student research project  
• Join an Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration or Action Team, expand your network and collaborate with other UBC faculty, practitioners and students to provide expertise and guidance on advancing UBC’s sustainability commitments from urban biodiversity, climate to food security and sustainability.  

How a seeds collaboration works

The SEEDS Sustainability Program is a well-established and effective way to integrate innovative and applied sustainability research into your courses that use the Campus as Living Laboratory. With more than 1300 research collaborations and 200 research reports generated, we are experienced in convening and catalyzing  applied student research and interdisciplinary partnerships that can inform and advance UBC’s sustainability and wellbeing policies, plans and practices that support the integration of operational and academic efforts in sustainability.  

SEEDS faculty collaborations can take many forms. To date, we have partnered with 12 faculties and schools and a diversity of  senior undergraduate and graduate courses and programs. 

Core SEEDS Criteria: All SEEDS Research Projects Must:

• Align with UBC’ sustainability and wellbeing commitments to advance knowledge and action 
• Inform the development or implementation of campus plans and policies [add hyperlink to associate page], ranging from UBC Climate Action Plans, Wellbeing Strategic Plan, Green Building Action Plan,Zero Waste Action Plan, Integrated Stormwater Management Plan, Community Energy & Emissions Plan,Transportation Plan, Water Action Plan, AMS Sustainability Action Plan, and  more. 
• Involve UBC students, faculty and staff, and can involve additional community partners if there is strong mutual benefit
• Apply a Community-Based Action Research Methodology - all SEEDS research is designed to produce tangible positive changes with the communities in which they affect, who are involved in all stages of the project research cycle
• Applies core project management principles and includes 5 phases: from scoping, initiation, monitoring and control, close and follow up. 
• Aligns with SEEDS core principles, such as research is openly accessible to promote transparency, knowledge exchange and collective impact 
• Produce a written deliverable  to ensure knowledge is retained and can be built upon, in addition to any other deliverables including  data sets, strategies, prototypes, conceptual designs, physical installations, art, videos, maps, software applications, conceptual designs, and more.   
• Generate knowledge exchange opportunities with the project clients and any other stakeholders in which the research affects through presentations, workshops or action symposiums 

ways to get involved

Curricular Pathway Options:  

SEEDS applied research can be integrated into an undergraduate or graduate course you are already teaching. You can also supervise students who are completing projects as part of an independent study, an undergraduate or graduate thesis, or professional projects.

We provide you with a range of support including: 

Project Management: 

• A SEEDS project manager provides project management support for the duration of the project from project scoping, initiation, monitoring and control, close to follow up. 

• Key responsibilities include supporting the development of a well-scoped research proposal, convening project clients (staff or community partners), supporting the creation of a project team communications schedule to ensure the project stays on track. This typically involves the development of a milestone schedule with the students and project clients, often a bi-weekly meeting where the students are able to meet with the clients, pitch and refine their research approach and ideas, receive mentorship and elicit feedback on ideas and draft deliverables prior to final submission. 

Partnership development 

• SEEDS draws on campus networks to find suitable campus staff and community partners for each research project. Every project has at least one primary client, and often secondary clients as well. SEEDS has long lasting relationships with most client groups and each research project builds on previous research to amplify knowledge and action towards UBC’s and societial’s critical sustainability challenges with the staff and community partners in which it affects. 

Curriculum integration with UBC Sustainability and Wellbeing Commitments:  

• Each project is carefully scoped in a “Research Project Charter” to align with UBC’s operational sustainability or wellbeing commitments, and your course learning objectives. 

Deliverables:  

• Completed student projects include a final research report, executive summary, and a presentation. Student projects may also include prototypes, a demonstration, conceptual designs, full build, video, application, or installation. The final research report is published in the SEEDS Sustainability Research Library, the UBC cIRcle Digital Repository, and shared with our staff or community partner.