Planetary Health

About

The UCGHI Center for Planetary Health Water and Health Summer Research Fellowships start in June 2025. The water and health research fellowships are designed to provide students with funding to conduct research on water and health. Students are encouraged to have two University of California faculty mentors from two different UC campuses. Applicants are welcome from graduate and undergraduate students. A max of $5,000 is offered for the summer fellowship, $2,500 is the average amount awarded. 

Desired skills, experience, and qualities of the student:

• Graduate or undergraduate student status at a UC campus.
• Minimum GPA 2.8 to be eligible for the program.
• Strong desire to learn, proactive and solution-oriented attitude, excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to synthesize complex information from various sources.
• Ability to collaborate and communicate with stakeholders.
• Confident, self-motivated, well-organized.
• Interest in water and health research.

Examples of activities that the student may be involved in:

• Conduct water and health research in the field or in the lab with two mentors from two different UC campuses.
• Investigate drinking water quality among vulnerable populations and health risks
• In the lab, measure pesticides in water and discuss implications for health.

Apply

To apply for a summer fellowship, please complete and email the application and supporting materials to planetaryhealth@ucdavis.edu by March 7, 2025 at 9:00am (PST). Applications will be reviewed in March.

Applications submitted after March 7, 2025, may be accepted if additional opportunities arise. Further information about the program as well as the desired skills, experience, and qualities of the fellows can be found below. Please direct any questions about the fellowship program or application to planetaryhealth@ucdavis.edu.

Email your application to planetaryhealth@ucdavis.edu.

Application Materials Requested:

1. Resume including contact information, education, employment, honors, publications.
2. Recommendations from two UC faculty mentors from two different UC campuses who will be your mentors.
3. Personal statement that describes your career goals and what you hope to gain from a summer fellowship (1 page maximum)
4. Research statement (3 page maximum) that describes your summer research plans for the summer funding window, includes: background, novelty of research, research design and analysis plan for the summer funding, IRB approval, goals for disseminating the research, strengths and limitations (3-4 pages max).
5. Budget that describes how the funding will be used and timeline for conducting the research over the summer months.

Timeline

High Level Program Timeline:

The Summer Immersion Program is coordinated by the UCGHI Center for Planetary Health in partnership with the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Cooperative Extension (UC ANR) and California Department of Conservation (DOC), and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). This program offers students a unique hands-on opportunity to work on projects related to conservation, natural resources, agriculture, nutrition, climate change, and environmental and health policy. The program has supported 68 fellowships since 2017.

Learn more about the program and apply by February 24, 2025!

The USAID-funded One Health Workforce - Next Generation project engages across sectors to prevent, detect, and respond to emerging disease threats of epidemic and pandemic importance. On an international scale, the One Health Workforce has now trained over 30,000 people across 17 countries in Africa and Southeast Asia on topics related to global health security and planetary health including antimicrobial resistance, risk communication, gender and One Health, and outbreak investigation and response. This project includes supporting front line teams working out of 100 universities in the 17 LMIC countries to engage with local communities and university students as well as faculty, and also creation of the One Health Workforce Academies online training platform that has now reached university students and faculty learners across 80 countries and provides access to online courses, case studies, facilitator guides, and field guides at no cost to learners at this time. UCGHI and CPH leadership including Drs. Woutrina Smith, Ndola Prata, Dele Ogunseitan, and Federico Castillo have been involved in these internationally recognized efforts across multiple UC campuses, and numerous UC faculty and students have engaged and benefited as well.

Established in 2017 at UC Berkeley, The Latinxs and the Environment Initiative (LEI) seeks to establish a comprehensive program designed to generate knowledge and encourage increased study and research on Latinxs and the environment—both in the U.S. and abroad with the coordinated participation of policy makers, community based organizations (CBOs) and the academic community.

LEI intends to create a space where Latinx students are provided with the guidance and resources in order to demystify research, graduate school and other higher education programs that are not as accessible for first-generation students. We seek to increase student retention and success by providing students with the skills and tools they need in order to achieve their higher education goals. This includes funding student research projects, for both undergraduate and graduate students, hosting student-led seminars and community spaces, and creating connections between students and our university faculty and community partners. 

Latinx & the Environment expanded to UC Riverside in 2022 with funding from the UC Office of the President Hispanic-Serving Institution Doctoral Diversity Initiative (UC-HSI DDI).