Grant Supports Strategic Planning for New School of Environmental, Coastal, and Ocean Sustainability
February 2024
The new Florida Atlantic University School of Environmental, Coastal, and Ocean Sustainability (ECOS) secured its first grant in February. The school was awarded $25,000 from the Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County through its Palm Beach International Boat Show Giving Back fund. The grant will provide resources for strategic planning exercises, and enable the school to amplify the quantity and quality of its course offerings, identify research emphases, and launch community engagement efforts. The aim is to capitalize on untapped synergies.
The process will kick-off with a retreat in early summer 2024, where a select group of faculty, administrators, and students will convene to strategize the school’s future over the next 10 years.
“We need to create a shared vision for how we support potential teaching, research, and community engagement activities that will elevate our productivity and visibility in greater Palm Beach County,” stated Colin Polsky, Ph.D., founding director of ECOS, professor of geosciences, and director of FAU’s Center for Environmental Studies. “The idea is to produce a roadmap that we can quickly begin implementing that will generate new opportunities for as many of our faculty and students as possible.”
In addition, such a roadmap will help support the school’s interdisciplinary array of Schmidt College of Science and HBOI-based expertise and interests, and its interests from other colleges across the university. Some examples of this objective include creating new cutting-edge courses, streamlining existing course offerings, pursuing interdisciplinary funding opportunities, and developing novel career links with the booming private sector.
Recognizing the critical intensification of the growing environmental risks in South Florida and beyond, Florida Atlantic launched ECOS in the summer of 2023. A partnership between the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science and FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, the school is comprised of a broad array of existing disciplines and units to amplify Florida Atlantic’s research, teaching and community engagement, while creating a comprehensive environmental hub at the university.