Purdue gets $2M NSF grant to build sustainability network

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) – The National Science Foundation has awarded Purdue University a $2 million grant to create an international network. The university says the funding will support GLASSNET, which is designed to improve the sharing of information among researchers throughout the world.

The network is being created by Purdue’s Global to Local Analysis of Systems Sustainability, or GLASS, project. The university says GLASSNET will support scientific teams and research communities working to tackle sustainability issues related to land and water use.

“With GLASSNET, our goal is to reduce barriers to information-sharing by creating global linkages between researchers,” said Thomas Hertel, director of the GLASS project at Purdue. “We hope to leverage those with complementary expertise, integrate cross-disciplinary data and analyses, and bridge gaps between supporting disciplines and scales of analysis.”

Purdue says GLASSNET will act as a center without walls to break down global communication barriers through models, data, and spatial scales, among others.

“This effort is a powerful example of Purdue’s leadership in bringing researchers together to address global challenges,” said Karen Plaut, Purdue’s Glenn W. Sample dean of Agriculture. “Working collaboratively toward solving these critical sustainability issues is at the heart of our land-grant mission.”

The university says the team will focus specifically on the land- and water-related SDGs, which include no poverty, zero hunger, and clean water and sanitation, among others.