Working together for climate resilient communities
MIT is launching a cohort of student researchers to work collaboratively with Institute offices and local city and community leaders to tackle shared challenges related to climate change. The focus for IAP 2026 (January 5 – January 30, 2026) will be understanding and communicating heat risk and developing heat risk reduction efforts.
IAP Climate program applications open on August 18th, and close on October 10th.
Schedule a 1:1 meeting to learn more about our program.
Note: Applications closed on October 10th.
This July, Earth experienced the hottest day on record. For communities around the United States, extreme heat is a leading weather-related cause of health problems. To address this, campuses and cities are developing innovative strategies to respond to heat impacts. IAP 2026 will be an opportunity for students to help strengthen pathways of collaboration, learning, and solutions among MIT and our local government and mission-driven partners in the region.
Student researchers will meaningfully contribute to enhancing preparedness efforts and present project deliverables and recommendations to campus and community stakeholders for shared learning. The goal is to develop longer-term projects and working relationships that continue after the winter session. Students in the program may be eligible for PKG Fellowship funding to continue these projects during the summer of 2026. IAP Climate is part of a series of opportunities engaging students at the intersection of climate, community, and careers, building towards a campus-wide MIT Climate Corps. This program is sponsored by the PKG Center, MIT Office of Sustainability, and the Urban Risk Lab.
When you participate in the IAP Climate Program,
- You and our community partners benefit from your commitment to sustainability and developing innovative solutions.
- Practitioners benefit from your energy, insights, and projects.
- You benefit from the opportunity to develop your professional skills while learning firsthand about climate change.
HOW IT WORKS
Open to MIT undergraduates ONLY, you will take part in the program for four weeks in January 2026 through a full-time, hybrid work model. IAP Climate matches you with campus/community partners and projects that seek to address climate change with innovative solutions. Our partners seek students with a wide variety of skills; this experience is open to students across all courses at MIT with an interest in sustainability and climate – from science to policy to the arts. We will pay your associated travel expenses, provide a stipend, and help with the cost of materials.
IAP Climate will provide you with experience in the field. You will work with professionals, collaborate with fellow students to serve clients and work on assigned projects based on your skills and the needs of the host organization. You will attend workshops to prepare you to consult with your host/s and implement your project. During IAP, you’ll also participate in community dinners with your cohort of MIT students to share and process your experience in the field.
IAP Climate Host Sites – IAP 2026
City of Cambridge Community Development Department & Office of Sustainability
The City of Cambridge’s Community Development Department alongside the newly created Office of Sustainability are working to foster a livable, sustainable, just, and equitable community. They work to enhance the character and diversity of the city’s neighborhoods, preserve and increase affordable housing, create and promote accessible and sustainable mobility, build climate resilience, and support sustainable economic growth.
Projects include: Visualization of summer heat sensor data; planning for appropriate shade interventions; expansion of a Cambridge Heat Guide.
https://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD
MIT Climate Project, Green Roots, & HEET
Projects include: Collaborative environmental justice work, including mapping and improving tree canopy in Chelsea.
MIT Urban Risk Lab, STS, and Common Good Co-op
The Architecture Group of New York works on books, exhibitions, advertisements, merchandising, fashion, research, websites, and last, but not least, architecture. They currently operate out of Boston, Mexico City, Chiloe, and sometimes, New York City. For IAP Climate, they are teaming up with the MIT Urban Risk Lab and the Common Good Co-Op.
Projects include: Public-health focused site design and community outreach for a women-based urban farm producer co-op.
MIT Office of Sustainability
The MIT Office of Sustainability was established in 2013 and has set out to ensure that sustainability is a critical part of MIT’s standard operating procedures and is fully integrated into the working, research, teaching, social and cultural spheres of campus. Its mission is to transform MIT into a replicable model—one that generates just, equitable, applicable, and scalable solutions for responding to the unprecedented challenges of a changing planet.
Projects include: Building out a campus-based heat-sensing living lab project: planning for summer deployment of temperature sensors, conducting qualitative research; and effectively communicating findings to stakeholders.
https://sustainability.mit.edu
MIT Living Climate Futures & Tribal partner
Check back for more information.
MA Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs
Building out climate adaptation resources for communities – Students will work to build out the Guides for Equitable and Actionable Resilience (GEAR) tool that allows communities to explore the intersections between climate hazards, like flooding and heat, and community systems, like housing and ecosystems, through guided mapping exercises and sharing information on example actions and projects. The tool currently houses about 20 such guides, and we are working to add many more. Students will also work on identifying and uploading relevant EEA grant deliverables and resources to the new ResilientMass Resources Database. Students could also choose to work on developing video shorts for municipalities to help them understand specific components of our new MVP 2.0 program.
The New Language of Decarbonization – Over the past two years the Decarbonization team has run two rounds of a Climate Campaign with the goals of building awareness among the public on state opportunities for climate action. Many of these assets were deployed online and generated a large amount of data on the words and terms users used that brought them to the campaign sites. We would like to work with a team of students to examine the data to determine trends and suggestions for how the public talks about decarbonization. This work is important because we are actively working on new ways to talk about decarbonization outside of state policy circles in a way that resonates with different community types.
IAP Climate Host Sites – IAP 2025
City of Cambridge
The City of Cambridge’s Community Development Department alongside the newly created Office of Sustainability are working to foster a livable, sustainable, just, and equitable community. They work to enhance the character and diversity of the city’s neighborhoods, preserve and increase affordable housing, create and promote accessible and sustainable mobility, build climate resilience, and support sustainable economic growth. https://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD
City of Boston
The City of Boston’s Office of Climate Resilience is implementing climate resilience projects across the city to address coastal flooding, stormwater flooding, and extreme heat. https://www.boston.gov/departments/climate-resilience
The Architecture Group of New York
The Architecture Group of New York works on books, exhibitions, advertisements, merchandising, fashion, research, websites, and last, but not least, architecture. They currently operate out of Boston, Mexico City, Chiloe, and sometimes, New York City. For IAP Climate, they are teaming up with the MIT Urban Risk Lab and the Common Good Co-Op. https://agony.works/AboutUs
MIT Office of Sustainability
The MIT Office of Sustainability was established in 2013 and has set out to ensure that sustainability is a critical part of MIT’s standard operating procedures and is fully integrated into the working, research, teaching, social and cultural spheres of campus. Its mission is to transform MIT into a replicable model—one that generates just, equitable, applicable, and scalable solutions for responding to the unprecedented challenges of a changing planet.
https://sustainability.mit.edu
Click here to learn more about climate resiliency efforts at MIT.
Talk to us about IAP Climate!
Questions? Email iapclimate@mit.edu.