Centers and institutes

The Biodesign Center for Environmental Health Engineering works at the regional, national and global scale to better understand and manage key environmental determinants of human health and global sustainability.

The Center for Biodiversity Outcomes brings together individuals and groups — from academic, nonprofit, policy and corporate sectors — to achieve common goals of biodiversity conservation and sustainable management of natural resources in the 21st century.

The Center for Hydrologic Innovations advances the mission of water managers and decision-makers for the benefit of industry and society by developing leading-edge technologies for sensing, predicting and analyzing water resources.

The Center for Negative Carbon Emissions is an internationally-recognized thought leader and pioneer in carbon dioxide removal technology and policy development. Through transdisciplinary research programs, the center invents, innovates, and produces fundamental knowledge in sorbent design and manufacturing; systems design, integration, and deployment; carbon dioxide utilization and sequestration; and political and socioeconomic impact assessments. Our educational and mentoring activities are creating the next generation workforce needed within the new carbon economy.

The Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) program advances research and education on urban ecology and urban socioecological systems.

Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC) was established with an investment from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Decision Making Under Uncertainty (DMUU) program. DCDC’s mission advances knowledge about decision making under uncertainty in the context of water sustainability and urban climate-change adaptation.

The Decision Theater organizes researchers, policymakers and the business community to better understand and visually explore solutions to complex issues facing society. Using data analytics and high-performance computing to drive software-integrated models, Decision Theater works with transdisciplinary partners to streamline big data and transform it into novel, interactive data visualizations.

The Global Consortium for Sustainability Outcomes is a global network that advances solutions to sustainability problems through research, development and capacity building. GCSO generates and tests a wide range of solutions including technologies, policies, economic incentives, social change and cultural practices.

The Global Locust Initiative engages key actors in locust research and management to develop partnerships and solutions for transboundary pest management in agroecosystems around the world.

The institute advances research and business practices for an urbanizing world.

Healthy Urban Environments is a collaborative initiative which combines the power of Arizona State University’s entrepreneurship, research and innovation infrastructure with partnership, support and collaboration from Maricopa County and its communities.

LightWorks pulls light-inspired research at Arizona State University under one strategic framework. It is a multidisciplinary effort to leverage ASU’s unique strengths, particularly in solar-electric energy, sustainable fuels and products, and energy and society.

Rob and Melani Walton, through the Walton Family Foundation, invested in Arizona State University to initiate programs that would develop use-inspired knowledge to solve sustainability problems, educate leaders and implementers, and engage people globally to innovate and take risks to create a more sustainable world.

The Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family was established to address the urgent needs for affordable housing in the Valley of the Sun — recognizing that affordable, quality housing is critical to healthy and sustainable communities.

Together, we drive social progress, economic productivity and ecosystem resilience through food systems transformation

Kaiteki identifies strategic social needs, pursues creative innovation in chemistry, materials, processes, devices and systems, as well as underlying new science and technologies.

The Urban Climate Research Center employs a collaborative social/physical science framework to address critical issues in the urban atmospheric environment.

The vision of the UREx SRN is to promote the transition to cities of the future that are resilient by virtue of their flexible, adaptable, socially equitable, and ecologically based infrastructure in the face of a higher incidence of extreme events, more culturally diverse communities, and continued urbanization pressure.

The Water Institute combines multidisciplinary academic research on observation, data analytics, technologies, and decision making in complex systems with solutions-based fieldwork to develop and test creative responses to water challenges faced by communities to nations around the world.

The Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation (AzCATI) harnesses algae technology to produce renewable energy, food, feed and other valuable products, while performing environmental services to support a more sustainable future for society.

CBBG applies bio-mediated and nature-inspired techniques to create sustainable, resilient and environmentally compatible solutions for recovery of natural resources and construction, repair, and rehabilitation of civil infrastructure systems.

The Center for Bioenergy and Photosynthesis carries out frontier multidisciplinary scientific research designed to use biological and biologically-based artificial systems to address societal energy needs in a sustainable manner. The center places an emphasis on solar energy conversion and bioinspired energy transformation to meet human needs, and investigates other aspects of photosynthesis that affect society and the environment.

The Center for Carbon Efficient and Advanced Manufacturing of Materials and Structures (CAMMS) aims to advance breakthrough technologies toward sustainable and efficient infrastructural materials manufacturing and infrastructure construction.

The center helps the auto industry transform ground vehicles to be more efficient, environmentally sustainable and more connected.

The Center for Environmental Economics and Sustainability Policy (CEESP) develops research in environmental and resource economics that is relevant to policy needs. Special attention is given to issues of sustainability in the context of environmental, energy, climate, and resource management.

The Center for Science and the Imagination brings writers, artists and other creative thinkers into collaboration with scientists, engineers and technologists to reignite humanity’s grand ambitions for innovation and discovery. It serves as a space for productive collaboration between the humanities and the sciences, bringing human narratives to scientific questions, and exploring the full social implications of cutting-edge research.

The Center for Smart Cities and Regions’ (CSCR) mission is to advance urban and regional innovation to make more inclusive, vibrant, resilient and sustainable communities.

The Center for Sustainable Tourism conducts research for communities who manage, market and host visitors in an ever-changing tourism industry.

The Center for Urban Innovation improves the quality of life in neighborhoods, cities and urban regions.

The guiding north star of the Center of Building Innovation is the inter-related issues of social and climate justice in the built environment. To affect change, CoBI will bring together faculty and students from all disciplinary units related to the built environment at Arizona State University into one center to work across all three enterprises.

The global future of water is about abundance and opportunity — not scarcity.

The Knowledge Exchange for Resilience is committed to solving perplexing problems through use-inspired research that builds community resilience.

The Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering seeks to provide the basis for understanding, designing and managing the complex integrated built/human/natural systems that increasingly characterize our planet in the Anthropocene – the Age of Humans.

The Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) engineering research center leverages expertise and emerging technology to develop innovative off-grid water systems. With a goal to protect human life and promote sustainable economic development, NEWT creates technological and social systems that ensure well-being for those who need it the most. NEWT has resulted in several ASU patents, a start-up company, and works with numerous start-ups and industries with significant manufacturing or job presence in Arizona. 

The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) is a global non-profit organization transforming the consumer goods industry to deliver more sustainable consumer products.

The Sustainable Phosphorus Alliance (SPA) is North America’s central forum and advocate for the sustainable use, recovery and recycling of phosphorus in the food system.

The TOMNET research team creates and tests a variety of innovative and practical data-driven approaches to advance sustainable transportation solutions by fostering a deep understanding and prediction of traveler behaviors, values and attitudes.