The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) announced the first research grants from the EPIC-UCAS Joint Center for Energy Policy Research in China. Formed in January 2019, the EPIC-UCAS Joint Center supports the development of research-based insights on key energy and environmental issues in China.

The six awards from the Joint Center’s first call for proposals will directly support new research on a wide range of issues, from policies to incentivize the scaling of renewable energy and the environmental and economic effects of an air pollution alert system to the economic and environmental benefits of heating price reform.

The six research awards will go to:

• Yanfen WANG (UCAS); Xi LU (Tsinghua University); Choon Fong SHIH (UCAS) to study clean energy alternatives in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau;

• Kevin Mo (UChicago), Xing Huang (UChicago), Choon Fong Shih (UCAS) to study incentive policies to scale renewable energy;

• Fiona Burlig (UChicago), Michael Greenstone (UChicago), Guojun He (UChicago/HKUSTHong Kong University of Science and Technology [HKUST]), Koichiro Ito (UChicago), Shaoda Wang (UChicago), Zifa Wang (UCAS) to study the effects of the Air Pollution Alert System;

• Michael Greenstone (UChicago), Guojun He (UChicago/HKUST), and Shaoda Wang (UChicago) to study double-random inspections and their impacts on emission abatement costs;

• Michael Greenstone (UChicago), Guojun He (UChicago/HKUST), Shaoda Wang (UChicago), Zifa Wang (UCAS) to study the effect of improved monitoring data on firm production and emission outcomes; and

• Koichiro Ito (UChicago) and Shuang Zhang (University of Colorado-Boulder) to study the economic and environmental benefits of heating price reform in China.