The initiative will attract outstanding new talent to IU through key faculty hires as well as faculty research fellows and scientists still in training. Sixteen new faculty hires will be made over the next five years, including ones in climate modelling, conservation biology, environmental law, risk and disaster modelling, urban environmental planning, and environmental communication. Three hires will be in Biology. One will be a biologist working on dispersal and behavioral phenology—including the patterns and mechanisms of animal movements, specifically the emerging areas of phenology, plasticity, adaptive responses to environmental change, behavior and evolution, and tracking. Another will work on shifts in the ranges of native and invasive species with environmental change. A third will work on host-parasite interactions in natural systems (disease ecology). A fourth hire in vector-borne diseases may be split between Biology and School of Public Health.

Twelve research fellows will join the Environmental Resilience Institute and be housed in affiliated departments. Modeled on Harvard’s Society of Fellows and Berkeley’s Miller Fellowships, these posts will be filled by top-rank independent scholars who will lead research associated with the initiative’s goals.

Three of these fellows will reside in Biology, the first of whom has already been appointed. Adam Fudickar is carrying out research that aims to understand the ability of animals to adapt to changes in climate and habitat. His group is working to identify the genetic and physiological mechanisms that underlie the responses of animals to these changes and to contribute to a greater understanding of how animals adapt to a rapidly changing planet.

In addition to hiring, the "Prepared for Environmental Change" initiative will support infrastructural improvements to research facilities.

In Biology that will include expanding and upgrading the Kent Farm property to enhance the lab space and install state-of-the-art aviaries for research on migration ecology.

A new Motus tower system will be installed in Indiana for tracking movements of birds. The Motus tracking system follows the movements of organisms using coordinated automated radio telemetry. The system currently comprises more than 300 receiving stations throughout the Western Hemisphere. Researchers affix transmitters (tags) to animals that emit a unique identifier that is detected by receiving stations in the landscape. Thousands of tags can be simultaneously deployed and tracked. Each station detects tags in 15 km radius. The combined array can track animals across thousands of kilometers.

Environmental chambers for experimental research in which temperature and photoperiod can be manipulated to mimic climate change will be acquired, and lab facilities in the IU Center for the Integrated Study of Animal Behavior will be upgraded.