Now It's giving all students, even undergraduates, the opportunity to conduct research.

Dr. Mridul Gautam is one person overseeing the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Grants Program at WVU.

"There's a lot of research going on about 80-million dollars in the last 4 years," says Gautam.

It will offer $500-$1,000 grants to teams of students so they can further their innovations.

Mechanical engineering student Steven Rhodes is a part of a group that applyed for a grant.

Their idea is to take all the energy produced from the exercise equipment at the student recreation center to produce energy for other parts of campus.

The plan would involve an overall energy audit of the WVU Recreation Center.

"We're going to look at how feasible it would be to actually hook up some of the exercise machines like spinning machines to a generator," says Rhodes, "All the energy its wasted.. its just dissipated its not used for anything."

Rhodes' group is one of many looking for a grant to pursue their idea.

Gautam says that so far the program is allowing students to learn outside the classroom, "It's not what we teach them in the classroom, it's the ability to offer our students the resources to think... to dream and to execute what their thinking."

WVU will announce the grant winners in December.

Funding will be available January 7th, 2009.