![Blugolds work on a solar panel on campus](https://publicwebuploads.uwec.edu/images/20107-20170309-Solar-Power-0047-homepage.jpg)
Sustainability in Research
Create sustainable solutions to our global challenges
UWEC prioritizes student-faculty research opportunities, including sustainability research. The articles below highlight only a few of the many ongoing research projects related to food security, plastics, equity, energy efficiency, public health, microplastics, and water research. As a student at UWEC you have the opportunity to join ongoing research projects like these or to create your own research project! To learn more talk with your advisors about research opportunities, or email sustainability@uwec.edu.
![A UW-Eau Claire research team is working with the Eau Claire Downtown Farmers Market on a program that helps community members who are food insecure. (Photo by Shane Opatz)](https://publicwebuploads.uwec.edu/images/20095-20220903-FarmersMarket-059-002--small.jpg)
Improving access to healthy foods
A UW-Eau Claire faculty-student research team is collecting and analyzing data relating to a community initiative that helps people who are food insecure to purchase more fresh, local and healthy foods at the Eau Claire Downtown Farmers Market.
Learn More![Students working on research this summer with Dr. Deidra Gerlach are using new high-end instrumentation secured through a grant from the National Science Foundation.](https://publicwebuploads.uwec.edu/images/17167-gerlach.1-small.jpg)
Building molecules and understanding
The chemistry and biochemistry department’s new X-ray diffractometer, an instrument used for many purposes including analysis of crystals of organic and inorganic small molecules at the atomic level, is creating new opportunities for student research.
Learn More![UW-Eau Claire geology professor Dr. J. Brian Mahoney shows high schooler Quinten Anger how to use a colorimetric kit to measure nitrate concentration in the Chippewa River. (Submitted photo)](https://publicwebuploads.uwec.edu/images/17551-20210809-Geology-0070-small.jpg)
Preparing water scientists
Freshwater Collaborative Wisconsin has issued the first round of state funding to all 13 schools in the UW System, funds that give UWEC $133,000 to enhance water-related academic programs.
Learn More![The Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area in northern Minnesota is the most visited wilderness area in the United States.](https://publicwebuploads.uwec.edu/images/13722-20190824-Boundary-Waters-0900-small.jpg)
Microplastics in the Boundary Waters
Microplastics have made their way into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, a wilderness area in northern Minnesota, according to a University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire research team. Researchers found microplastics in earthworms, water and soils.
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