UConn and Eversource are pleased to announce that the Clean Energy Sustainability Innovation Program is being offered again for Spring 2025.
We welcome any and all students across the university to pitch their “grant ideas” to explore local sustainability challenges that matter to them.
Through this summer program, students will get to workshop their ideas in both an academic and industry setting and develop the skills to apply critical thinking to their clean energy sustainability ideas. Teams will present their projects at a university-wide Sustainable Clean Energy Summit on October 27th, 2025, and be eligible to receive additional funding and support to extend their research and development throughout the 2025-2026 academic year.
Why Join this program?
- Develop your interpersonal communication and critical-thinking skills
- Receive a summer stipend to work with UConn faculty and Eversource managers to get your team’s idea in development
- Learn about the ins and outs of research development and problem-solving
- Access opportunities for research and internship with Eversource
- Contribute to the decarbonizing efforts of UConn and long-term sustainability goals of Connecticut towns and municipalities.
About The Challenge
Connecticut has committed to getting all its energy from zero carbon sources by 2040 and reducing statewide emissions by 45% by 2030 and 80% by 2050. At the same time, the state has an ambitious Economic Development Plan to attract and retain a growing population, while supporting and generating inclusive economic opportunity within innovative and specialized industries. Both goals require a modernized electric power grid to integrate new renewable energy sources, meet the increasing electric demand and maintain reliability in the face of climate change.
For this challenge, we ask students to either propose a campus-focused initiative (at any of the UConn campuses) or select a Connecticut municipality within which to focus their efforts. If a student-team chooses to focus on a UConn campus-based project, they will be asked to meet with Stan Nolan, Interim AVP of Facilities Operations, to understand the current energy demands and plans for UConn campuses. Those focusing on a municipality will need to review the town’s current environmental plans, meet with town managers, and discuss their current energy demands and solutions, and anticipated growth for their municipality.
After assessment, students will meet with their Eversource and UConn mentors to highlight their challenges and brainstorm solutions to the future energy demands. The student teams will then update the UConn campus or municipality’s energy/environmental plans to reflect their new ideas with proposed timelines that correspond with the state’s goals of 2030, 2040, and 2050.
Areas of focus can include legislative and policy updates, economic modeling and analysis of costs to decarbonization or proposed clean energy solutions, rate of growth of renewables and electric load and impact to the transmission and/or distribution electrical grid, integration of new energy/grid modernization technologies to meet anticipated load growth, other approaches to reduce emissions, enhance energy efficiency, affordability, etc.
Students are encouraged to work in interdisciplinary teams along with town managers, planning & zoning, local civic organizations, Eversource, and UConn’s Connecticut Institute for Resilience & Climate Adaptation (CIRCA). UConn and Eversource can assist teams in connecting with local decision makers.
Project Application – Guidelines & Requirements
Interested students must submit a project application to Francesco Rouhana (francesco.rouhana@uconn.edu) by May 16, 2025, which includes the following:
- One application form per team that lists the names, majors, programs and expected graduation dates of each team member, as well as personal statement from each team member that includes their activities on campus and their motivation for applying (how this program can support their study and/or career);
- A one-page scope of work outlining the proposed location, town or city for study;
- A list of deliverables (building dataset, generating maps, etc.,) the team plans to produce during the program; and
- An approximate inventory of data available as well as datasets they would need to acquire from UConn, localities or Eversource.
We highly encourage using data from Sustainable CT to supplement any data you may be missing. By completing this process with the town or city of the student team's choice, both parties have a clear understanding of what is expected from each other during the program for successful project completion.
For graduate student submissions, please also consider how this project can be scaled up to include multiple towns, or even the entire State of Connecticut.
Team Requirements: Teams must be two or three students (undergraduate and/or graduate) from a minimum of two different disciplines.
Program Timeline
- Teams will need to submit proposals by May 16, 2025.
- Teams will be selected by Eversource and UConn committee by May 30, 2025.
- Students of the selected teams will receive a fellowship ($2,500 lump sum) to work on their “grant idea” in the period of June 01 – August 22, 2025.
- Teams will be supported by two mentors: a UConn faculty and Eversource staff.
- Team members will have the opportunity to spend time at Eversource during the summer.
- Each team is expected to present their “grant idea” and summer work at the 2025 Sustainable Clean Energy summit on October 27, 2025.
- The winning team(s) to be selected at the 2025 summit will receive a continuation grant to further develop their “grant idea” throughout the academic year in close collaboration with an Eversource department.
Mentor Selection
- Students may suggest their UConn faculty mentor or allow the committee to assign their team to a respective UConn faculty.
- The committee will match the student projects with select Eversource personnel and departments after their selection.