Profs. Cameron LaPoint and Vahideh Manshadi Receive Research Grants from Yale Planetary Solutions
The Yale organization, which supports evidence-backed solutions for global problems, provided funding for LaPoint’s research on financing resiliency and energy efficiency improvements for housing and Manshadi’s effort to reduce food waste by improving a leading food rescue app.
Yale Planetary Solutions (YPS), a research incubator housed within Yale University, has provided grants to Cameron LaPoint, assistant professor of finance, and Vahideh Manshadi, the Michael H. Jordan Professor of Operations.
YPS funds research and scholarship on pressing global problems with the aim of developing innovative, evidence-backed solutions. Now in its fourth year, the Planetary Solutions Grant Program will distribute $2 million to 23 projects chosen from the most competitive applicant pool in the organization’s history.
“By providing early-stage support for innovative projects, the fund enables faculty to experiment with promising ideas and to try new approaches,” YPS said in an announcement.
LaPoint won a grant alongside collaborators Aymeric Bellon, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Aurel Rochell, of the Yale Tobin Center for Economic Policy. Recognizing that current real estate financing methods do not address increasing energy costs and the frequency and severity of housing damage due to climate change, the trio will investigate the role of Property Assessed Clean Energy loans in financing residential solar adoption and resiliency improvements. They aim to help policymakers craft regulations and promote investment in sustainable housing.
Manshadi, whose research focuses on the operation of online matching programs, received funding to improve the hunger relief organization Feeding America’s food rescue app, MealConnect. Collaborating with Yale SOM PhD student Soonbong Lee; Daniela Saban of the Stanford Graduate School of Business; and Daniella Enongene of Feeding America, Manshadi intends to make allocation of donated food more equitable across receiving agencies and automate decision-making within the app. The project aims to provide a blueprint for simultaneously reducing food waste, which is responsible for up to 10% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, and alleviating food insecurity, which affects 47 million people within the U.S. alone.
The YPS Grant program is funded by the Three Cairns Group, a mission-driven investment and philanthropic firm focused on the climate crisis. University organizations including the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture and the Office of the Provost AI Initiatives have also provided support.
