Cooper Union

Award & Grant Opportunities

In keeping with its mission to promote an ethos of sustainability and ecological awareness, the Institute for Sustainable Design assigns annual awards and grants in topics related to sustainability.

Service to Sustainability Award The Institute’s annual Service to Sustainability Award recognizes the people and organizations that not only share our continued commitment to sustainability, but also facilitate the adaptation of sustainability locally and within larger global societies.
Special Projects Grant The Institute’s Special Projects Grant’s overall objective is to help realize and advance the Institute’s Mission. The Grant encourages modest scale research projects that educate our Cooper Union community on issues of sustainability and the working relationship of students and faculty of the Cooper Union.

Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.
“My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”
From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.
Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.