Envision Resilience Announces National Design Studio Grants to Support Graduate and Undergraduate Research in Community-Centric, Adaptive Climate Design
Students from the University of Florida on site in New Bedford, Mass. during the 2023 Envision Resilience New Bedford and Fairhaven Challenge.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025
CONTACT:
Kate Deans
communications@envisionresilience.org
BOSTON—Building on its work to advance innovative planning and design in the face of climate change, Envision Resilience announced today a new national grant program that will award funding to university-affiliated design studios to support curricula centered on adaptive design solutions to the challenges of a warming planet in their communities.
The National Design Studio Grant expands on the Envision Resilience Challenge, the signature program of Envision Resilience now in its fifth year, that convenes multidisciplinary student teams of architects and landscape architects, urban and regional planners, environmental scientists and artists to reimagine and propose creative and adaptive solutions to the current and future impacts of climate change in communities throughout the Northeast.
Design faculty running spring 2026 design studios that explore adaptive solutions to climate change in their rural, urban or mid-sized communities are invited to apply. Studios focused on developing short- and long-term interventions that approach the intersecting issues of housing, materiality, energy, environmental justice and transportation will be prioritized. Successful applications will focus on studios engaging and collaborating with community members to imagine innovative and resilient climate futures.
"We can't escape the impact of rising seas and climate change—but we can imagine and build a resilient and secure future," said Wendy Schmidt, founder of Envision Resilience. "For five years, we've seen how the Envision Resilience Challenge sparks creative and optimistic solutions. Now, through the National Design Studio Grant, we're eager to see how campuses and communities across the country will collaborate together to design the resilient shorefront environments where we can work, live and play.”
Graduate as well as undergraduate studio courses in departments of architecture, regional and urban planning, landscape architecture and environmental design will be considered.
“The impact that student and community collaboration and visionary design thinking can have on moving the needle in adaptation is instrumental,” said Claire Martin, executive director of Envision Resilience. “This grant allows Envision Resilience to expand its growing network of academics and practitioners who share a commitment to fostering the next generation of resilience professionals, designers and leaders—and making possible the transformative design studio experience of engaging students with real-world challenges and people.”
As part of its mission to foster the next generation of leaders and advance the collective practices of planning, architecture and landscape architecture, Envision Resilience has partnered with many of the nation’s leading institutions at the forefront of design and resilience research. University partners to date include Cornell University, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Howard University, Maine College of Art & Design, Northeastern University, Rhode Island School of Design, Roger Williams University, State University of New York at Buffalo, Syracuse University, University of Florida, University of Maine at Augusta, University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, University of Miami School of Architecture, University of Michigan, University of Rhode Island, University of Toronto, University of Virginia and Yale School of Architecture.
Since its founding in 2020 as a program of Remain—the Nantucket-based organization that seeks to bring creative thinking to environmental and community challenges—the Envision Resilience Challenge has engaged more than 500 graduate and undergraduate students.
The deadline for National Design Studio Grant applications is Friday, October 17, 2025. Interested faculty can apply via the application portal. Questions can be sent to communications@envisionresilience.org.
About Envision Resilience
Envision Resilience works to advance innovative planning and design in the face of climate change through student and community partnerships. By connecting current and future professionals working across disciplines, the organization creates opportunities for communities to reimagine climate challenges and inspire resilient solutions. Envision Resilience, originally developed by Remain, is part of the philanthropic organizations and initiatives created and funded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt to work toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. To learn more, visit envisionresilience.org.
