Cornell Researchers Receive $200K Grant to Launch Humanitarian Research in Niger

Cornell’s collaboration with the international humanitarian agency CARE was recently awarded a $200,000 grant to pursue its research focusing on the relationship between climate resilience and gender equity in Niger. The grant was bestowed by the David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and CARE USA through the Innovation for Impact Fund, which will finance the collaboration for 18 months. According to Liz Bageant ’10 M.S. ’14, a research support specialist, this type of funding “is highly unusual.”
“There tends not to be a lot of fundraising support for developing proposals — IIF gives us the opportunity to take time to develop our research,” Bageant said. Since 2011, the University has worked together with CARE to address problems such as hunger, maternal and infant health and climate change, according to a University press release. A Cornell-CARE brochure calls the collaboration a space “where research meets practice.”
Christopher Barrett, deputy dean and dean of academic affairs for the SC Johnson College of Business, and Mara Russell, director for food resilience and women’s empowerment at CARE, will lead the collaboration.