The U.S. Green Building Council announced several projects that will receive grants from the organization, including a green roof energy calculator.

The Green Building Research Fund was created to spur research that will advance sustainable building practices and encourage market transformations. The USGBC committed $2 million to the program, while the research fund is generating $1.1 million in matching funds and additional activities and partnerships. A quarter of the fund is dedicated to research in K-12 schools.

“We’ve identified an enormous need for green building research,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chairman of the USGBC. “The research grants are part of USGBC’s commitment to better understand what is working and what more can be done, which will inform USGBC’s programs and the entire building industry.

“The selected proposals drive knowledge, policies, tools and technologies and inspire corresponding industry and government-wide action,” Fedrizzi said.

USGBC’s research committee, in its role as the grant selection panel, reviewed 216 pre-proposals and 38 full proposals, spanning a broad range of topics, including K-12 school facility research. The field was narrowed down to 13 final selections.

“The portfolio of research projects address a range of critical environmental needs in the building industry, encompass diverse approaches and proposed outcomes, and are well-distributed geographically across the U.S.,” said Gail Brager, chairwoman of USGBC’s research committee.

  Research topics covered each of the five categories of environmental performance that are addressed within the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building certification system. Grants ranging from $90,000 to $250,000 were awarded to the 13 research teams.

The research projects selected for funding also include an open source, searchable database to assess the impact of environmental strategies on health care facilities and HVAC control formulas for mixed-mode buildings.

For a complete list of winning projects, visit www.usgbc.org.