As with any ecosystem, the research ecosystem involves a web of relationships that connect scientists across a variety of disciplines.
As part of its mission, the Natural Environmental Change Center (NATCHANGE) issues grants to support environmental change research for both graduate students and faculty members. In 2025 and 2026, the center awarded five graduate student awards and two faculty seed grants. 
Recipients include members from five different departments and programs associated with Watson and Harpur College, as well as the First-year Research Immersion (FRI) program. Some student awards are even in collaboration with affiliated faculty who run scientific and environmental consulting firms, noted Associate Professor of Earth Sciences Molly Patterson, the Center’s co-director.  

“Collaborative research matters because it combines expertise no single researcher has, expands access to resources, and increases credibility while also reducing bias,” she said. “Fundamentally, it also builds relationships that ultimately help sustain research programs.” 
The center offers two awards for graduate students; students from any department or program on campus are eligible to apply.
The Graney-Zhu Ecosystem Award is named for Earth Sciences Professor Emeritus Joseph Graney and Professor of Biological Sciences Weixing Zhu, the previous directors of the Center for Integrated Watershed Studies, NATCHANGE’s precursor. Intended to foster research in biogeochemistry and ecosystem science research, the biennial award is $6,000. 

A current recipient of the Graney-Zhu Award is Earth Sciences doctoral student Gretl King, who is using 15-million-year-old microscopic fossils from the ocean floor to understand how large-scale climate change drives the evolution of marine plankton. Mentored by Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences Adriane Lam, King is focusing on an area off the western coast of New Zealand, subject to frequently changing winds and ocean currents; it’s a biodiversity hotspot, and experiences some of the most intense marine heatwaves globally.
“I’m trying to understand evolution in the context of environmental changes,” King said. “This grant will allow me to collect more geochemical stable isotope data, which will broaden my data set and allow me to answer more questions.”
The NATCHANGE Graduate Research Award funds graduate student projects that involve collaboration with multiple faculty or affiliated researchers; the $3,000 award is given annually to graduate students. Recipients include:
As with graduate student funding, faculty seed grants are intended to promote collaborative environmental science research by supporting proposals with the potential to secure external funding, explained Prior, co-director of the center. 
Faculty SEED grant awards were given to:
Binghamton’s environmental change research uses a variety of approaches and disciplines to monitor change, understand its drivers, and develop solutions, Prior said.
“Environmental change — and its solutions — are too complex for any one discipline to measure, let alone solve. NATCHANGE supports collaborative, innovative work by faculty and graduate students across environmental science and engineering disciplines to develop solutions that benefit society and are grounded in science,” she said. “We’re excited about the range of research happening across Binghamton University, and we’re working to support and create connections among departments, researchers, students, and the community.”