The Institute on the Environment's research enterprise spans in-house research faculty; competitively funded project teams; postdoctoral scholars; and a network of more than 250 affiliated experts. Our research is organized around 10 sustainability domains, with outcomes defined by interdisciplinary teams closest to the work.
Partners from communities, governments, NGOs and the private sector are part of this work from the start. They shape questions alongside IonE-affiliated scholars and build solutions that inform decisions, shape policy and drive real environmental progress.
How IonE’s Research Is Organized
IonE’s research enterprise is structured around two interconnected areas: domains that focus its priorities and the centers and programs that anchor long-term investment.
Topics & Priorities
IonE organizes its research enterprise around 10 sustainability domains – from adaptation and biodiversity to environmental justice and food systems. These domains guide our grantmaking, partnerships and research agendas. Each topic is linked to related projects, experts and work underway.
Centers & Initiatives
IonE hosts and partners with centers and research programs that represent significant, long-term investments in areas where interdisciplinary collaboration can accelerate sustainability progress. Each is aligned with IonE’s strategic priorities and connected to the broader research network.
Sustainability challenges don’t yield to any single discipline or methodology, which is why we’ve built a research enterprise that brings together many kinds of expertise, many ways of knowing and many forms of partnership. The work is stronger for it.
Melissa Kenney
Director of Research & Knowledge Initiatives
The People Driving the Work
IonE’s research enterprise is powered by people collaborating across four distinct roles, each contributing to how sustainability knowledge is built, tested and put into practice.
Research Faculty
IonE research faculty are staff-based scholars leading interdisciplinary portfolios, mentoring postdoctoral researchers and advancing sustainability science across the Institute’s 10 domains. Their work anchors IonE’s in-house research capacity and connects directly to the broader network of funded teams and affiliated experts.
Postdoctoral Fellows
IonE’s Postdoctoral Fellowship program places early-career researchers at the center of solutions-oriented, partner-engaged work. Postdoctoral fellows contribute to multiple projects over two-year appointments, developing as scholars while building the collaborative relationships that endure long after their time at IonE.
The Affiliate Network
IonE’s affiliate network – more than 250 University of Minnesota faculty, researchers, educators and practitioners – represents the breadth of IonE’s scholarly community. IonE enables and supports their research through competitive funding, opportunities for cross-disciplinary connection and the infrastructure to pursue collaborative, partner-engaged work.
Funded Project Teams
Each year, IonE competitively funds interdisciplinary, partner-engaged research teams working to advance measurable sustainability outcomes in Minnesota and beyond. Impact Goal grants and mini grants support work at different scales, from early-scale collaborations to project teams ready to drive lasting change.
We also offer individual funding through opportunities like fellowships. Explore all funding from IonE.
Partner on Research
IonE builds research partnerships with organizations ready to co-define challenges and pursue solutions together. Find out how to get involved.
Research in Action
Research at IonE takes many forms – from partner-engaged inquiry and data modeling to education, communications and community-based approaches. Here's a look at one project underway.
Food System Supply-Chain Sustainability | FoodS³
FoodS³ provides data and insights that empower organizations to improve the sustainability of their supply chains.
Research Program
From Invisible to Actionable
Most of the environmental impacts of our food and beverages occur in the crop and animal stages of production, but this supply chain is effectively invisible, making it difficult for the private sector to collaborate on sustainable agricultural improvements. FoodS3 is a continually improving platform that pulls together various data sources and models to make these supply chains more visible. The result is a link between the upstream companies and the downstream landscape, tying together the supply chain and its environmental impacts and empowering organizations to make more sustainable choices.
Meet the Project Team
Project Leads
Research Professor in Sustainable Food Systems
Associate Research Professor in Economics and Industrial Ecology
Meet the Researchers
IonE’s network spans more than 300 affiliated experts, funded project teams, postdoctoral scholars and in-house research faculty – working across disciplines and all 10 sustainability domains.
Wenkai Guan
Project PI
Since 2026
Computer Science Department
University of Morris Division of Science and Mathematics
Roger Ruan
Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering; Center for Biorefining
College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences
Curtis Nordgaard
Department of Pediatrics
Medical School
Nathaniel Springer
Associate
Since 2018
Staff
Since 2017
Associate Research Professor in Economics and Industrial Ecology
Institute on the Environment
Nathan Johnson
Associate
Since 2019
Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering
College of Science and Engineering
Explore our full network of experts.
Invest in Research that Drives Impact
Support the people, projects and partnerships that are creating a more sustainable future for our state, country and world.