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The Office of the Science Advisor (OSA), Office of Research and Development (ORD) at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking 1 individual, to interact with all of these councils  and forums, but primary focus will be to support the Council for Regulatory Environmental Modeling (CREM), Forum on Environmental Measurements (FEM), and Environmental Laboratory Advisory  Board (ELAB). The Office of the Science Advisor (OSA), led by the Agency Science Advisor and the Deputy Director, provides leadership in cross-Agency science and science policy development and implementation to  ensure the best possible use of science at the Agency. The OSA accomplishes this through the: Science and Technology Policy Council, Risk Assessment Forum, Program in Human Research Ethics, Forum  on Environmental Measurements, Environmental Laboratory Advisory Board, and Council for Regulatory Environmental Modeling.  The duty location is Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Work is expected to begin in September or October, 2013 and have a one (1) year period. Two (2) additional one (1) year optional periods may  be exercised, depending on performance and need. The total duration of the order, including base and any option periods and other extension shall not exceed thirty six months or 3 years. The student  contractor will be paid by the hour for a maximum of 1928 hours annually. The total value of the order (base and all option periods) shall not exceed $150,000.00.

The Environmental Health Specialists Network (EHS-Net) is a collaborative forum of environmental health specialists who work together to improve environmental health practice. EHS-Net seeks to improve the practice of environmental health service programs by developing and sustaining a network of environmental health specialists (EHS) who collaborate with epidemiologists, laboratorians and other public health professionals to conduct practice-based research to identify and prevent environmental risk factors contributing to foodborne illness. For information on EHS-Net activities, please visit http ://www .cdc .gov /nceh /ehs /EHSNe t / index.htm. This announcement will fund EHS-Net-related research projects for food safety activities under the jurisdiction of departments of health or other agencies responsible for regulatory oversight of retail food service including restaurants, delis, cafeterias, schools, etc.

The NIEHS is establishing an infrastructure, the Human Health Exposure Analysis Resource (HHEAR) as a continuation of the Children's Health Exposure Analysis Resource (CHEAR). The goal of this consortium is to provide the research community access to laboratory and statistical analyses to add or expand the inclusion of environmental exposures in their research and to make that data publicly available as a means to improve our knowledge of the comprehensive effects of environmental exposures on human health throughout the life course. This FOA solicits Laboratories (Lab Hubs) providing a comprehensive suite of analysis of environmental exposures in samples such as dust, soil, and drinking water related to the immediate environment of individuals and linked to health endpoints. Each Hub will incorporate a developmental core to develop novel measures for environmental samples, expanding the number of current, commonly measured analytes, and developing new methods for detecting analytes in other environmental samples and providing additional insight into the sources of exposures that influence human health. The Environmental Monitoring Lab will also serve as a 'clearinghouse for evaluation and provision of emerging tools and technologies for personal exposure assessment to the client community.

The CNH2 Program supports research projects that advance basic scientific understanding of integrated socio-environmental systems and the complex interactions (dynamics, processes, and feedbacks) within and among the environmental (biological, physical and chemical) and human ("socio") (economic, social, political, or behavioral) components of such a system. The program seeks proposals that emphasize the truly integrated nature of a socio-environmental system versus two discrete systems (a natural one and a human one) that are coupled. CNH2 projects must explore a connected and integrated socio-environmental system that includes explicit analysis of the processes and dynamics between the environmental and human components of the system.

The Centers of Excellence on Environmental Health Disparities (EHD) research program is a collaborative effort supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that encourages basic, biological, clinical, epidemiological, behavioral and/or social scientific investigations of disease conditions that are known to be a significant burden in low socioeconomic and health disparate populations. The centers define environmental health disparities as inequities in illnesses that are mediated by disproportionate exposures associated with the social, natural and built environments. The kick-off meeting will feature presentations from each of the five funded centers highlighting their proposed research.

The NIEHS and partnering Institutes and Centers are establishing an infrastructure, the Human Health Exposure Analysis Resource (HHEAR) as a continuation of the Children's Health Exposure Analysis Resource (CHEAR). The goal of this consortium is to provide the research community access to laboratory and statistical analyses to add or expand the inclusion of environmental exposures in their research and to make that data publicly available as a means to improve our knowledge of the comprehensive effects of environmental exposures on human health throughout the life course. This FOA solicits Laboratories (Lab Hubs) that can provide comprehensive measurement of the exposome using untargeted approaches (such as metabolomics using libraries enriched for environmental exposure biomarkers) for biological samples derived from extant or ongoing human health studies in the NIH extramural research community. Each Hub will incorporate an administrative core and a developmental core to improve the ability of untargeted platform to detect a wide range of environmental exposures and endogenous changes in response to environmental influences in a variety of biological matrices.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation has issued a request for proposals to investigate environmental factors that increase Risk for Parkinson's disease. While some evidence links environmental factors with increased risk of PD, according to the foundation much remains unknown regarding the specific environmental risks, their role in disease, and the quantification of their contributions. A better understanding of environmental risk factors for PD could lead to efforts to reduce or prevent such exposures.

The Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases program supports research on the ecological, evolutionary, and socio-ecological principles and processes that influence the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases. The central theme of submitted projects must be quantitative or computational understanding of pathogen transmission dynamics. The intent is discovery of principles of infectious disease transmission and testing mathematical or computational models that elucidate infectious disease systems. Projects should be broad, interdisciplinary efforts that go beyond the scope of typical studies. They should focus on the determinants and interactions of transmission among humans, non-human animals, and/or plants. This includes, for example, the spread of pathogens; the influence of environmental factors such as climate; the population dynamics and genetics of reservoir species or hosts; the cultural, social, behavioral, and economic dimensions of disease transmission. Research may be on zoonotic, environmentally-borne, vector-borne, or enteric diseases of either terrestrial or freshwater systems and organisms, including diseases of animals and plants, at any scale from specific pathogens to inclusive environmental systems. Proposals for research on disease systems of public health concern to developing countries are strongly encouraged, as are disease systems of concern in agricultural systems. Investigators are encouraged to develop the appropriate multidisciplinary team, including for example, modelers, bioinformaticians, genomics researchers, social scientists, economists, epidemiologists, entomologists, parasitologists, microbiologists, bacteriologists, virologists, pathologists or veterinarians, with the goal of integrating knowledge across disciplines to enhance our ability to predict and control infectious diseases.

The Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases program supports research on the ecological, evolutionary, and socio-ecological principles and processes that influence the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases. The central theme of submitted projects must be quantitative or computational understanding of pathogen transmission dynamics. The intent is discovery of principles of infectious disease transmission and testing mathematical or computational models that elucidate infectious disease systems. Projects should be broad, interdisciplinary efforts that go beyond the scope of typical studies. They should focus on the determinants and interactions of transmission among humans, non-human animals, and/or plants. This includes, for example, the spread of pathogens; the influence of environmental factors such as climate; the population dynamics and genetics of reservoir species or hosts; the cultural, social, behavioral, and economic dimensions of disease transmission. Research may be on zoonotic, environmentally-borne, vector-borne, or enteric diseases of either terrestrial or freshwater systems and organisms, including diseases of animals and plants, at any scale from specific pathogens to inclusive environmental systems. Proposals for research on disease systems of public health concern to developing countries are strongly encouraged, as are disease systems of concern in agricultural systems. Investigators are encouraged to develop the appropriate multidisciplinary team, including for example, modelers, bioinformaticians, genomics researchers, social scientists, economists, epidemiologists, entomologists, parasitologists, microbiologists, bacteriologists, virologists, pathologists or veterinarians, with the goal of integrating knowledge across disciplines to enhance our ability to predict and control infectious diseases.

The Outstanding New Environmental Scientist (ONES) Award is intended to identify the most talented Early Stage Investigators (ESIs) who intend to make a long-term commitment to research in the Environmental Health Sciences and assist them in launching an innovative research program focused on the understanding of environmental exposure effects on people's health.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages exploratory and developmental grant applications to lay the foundation for innovative and collaborative basic research on the role of epigenetics in social, behavioral, environmental and biological relationships, throughout the life-span and across generations. Research plans that are responsive to this FOA will use existing bio-psycho-social and environmental data from human cohorts or animal studies that have biospecimens available for epigenetic profiling. The one year exploratory/developmental awards are expected to generate preliminary data for comprehensive basic research applications to study interactions between epigenetics and social/behavioral/biological/environmental factors in both normal function and pathophysiology throughout life and across generations. The results may ultimately inform research to develop clinical decision/diagnostic tools and prevention/treatment strategies.   

The Outstanding New Environmental Scientist (ONES) Award is intended to identify the most talented Early Stage Investigators (ESIs) who intend to make a long-term commitment to research in the Environmental Health Sciences and assist them in launching an innovative research program focused on the understanding of environmental exposure effects on peoples health.

Environmental exposure induced perturbations of epigenomic marks are correlated with disease pathogenesis.  Identifying changes in epigenomic marks, (e.g., DNA methylation, histone modifications, chromatin accessibility) in affected tissues/cells is not always feasible in humans. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) seeks applications for a Data Coordination Center (DCC) as part of an ongoing NIEHS program in environmental epigenomics. The purpose of this FOA is to establish a data coordinating center that serves as a component of the TaRGET II Consortium. This Consortium will explore the conservation of perturbations of epigenomic marks across target tissues/cells and surrogate tissues/cells using mouse models of environmentally relevant diseases. The DCC will make available the resulting data for utilization by the broader scientific community. Ultimately, the TaRGET II program will provide insights into the design and interpretation of human studies where target tissues are inaccessible.

The Long Term Research in Environmental Biology (LTREB) Program supports the generation of extended time series of data to address important questions in evolutionary biology, ecology, and ecosystem science. Research areas include, but are not limited to, the effects of natural selection or other evolutionary processes on populations, communities, or ecosystems; the effects of interspecific interactions that vary over time and space; population or community dynamics for organisms that have extended life spans and long turnover times; feedbacks between ecological and evolutionary processes; pools of materials such as nutrients in soils that turn over at intermediate to longer time scales; and external forcing functions such as climatic cycles that operate over long return intervals. The Program intends to support decadal projects. Funding for an initial, 5-year period requires submission of a preliminary proposal and, if invited, submission of a full proposal that includes a 15-page project description. Proposals for the second five years of support (renewal proposals) are limited to an eight-page project description and do not require a preliminary proposal. Continuation of an LTREB project beyond an initial ten year award will require submission of a new preliminary proposal that presents a new decadal research plan.?? Successful LTREB proposals address three essential components: A Decadal Research Plan that clearly articulates important questions that cannot be addressed with data that have already been collected, but could be answered if ten additional years of data were collected. This plan is not a research timeline or management plan. It is a concise justification for ten additional years of support in order to advance understanding of key concepts, questions, or theories in environmental biology.Core Data: LTREB proposals require that the author has studied a particular phenomenon or process for at least six years up to the present or for long enough to gene

The DOE SC program in Biological and Environmental Research (BER) hereby announces its interest in receiving applications for research in Environmental Systems Science (ESS), including Terrestrial Ecosystem Science (TES) and Subsurface Biogeochemical Research (SBR). The goal of the Environmental System Science (ESS) activity in BER is to advance a robust, predictive understanding of the set of interdependent physical, biogeochemical, ecological, hydrological, and geomorphological processes for use in Earth system, ecosystem and reactive transport models. Using an iterative approach to model-driven experimentation and observation, and interdisciplinary teams, ESS-supported scientists work to unravel the coupled physical, chemical and biological processes that control the structure and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems and integrated watersheds across critical spatial and temporal scales. This FOA will consider applications that focus on improving the understanding and representation of terrestrial and subsurface environments in ways that advance the sophistication and capabilities of local, regional, and larger scale models.

The Environmental Health and Safety of Nanotechnology (Nano EHS) program provides support to examine and mitigate the environmental effects of nanotechnologies. Fundamental research is sought to understand, evaluate, and lessen the impact of nanotechnology on the environment and biological systems. The program emphasizes engineering principles underlying the environmental health and safety impacts of nanotechnology. Innovative methods related to clean nanomaterials production processes, waste reduction, recycling, and industrial ecology of nanotechnology are also of interest.

The Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases program supports research on the ecological, evolutionary, and socio-ecological principles and processes that influence the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases. The central theme of submitted projects must be quantitative or computational understanding of pathogen transmission dynamics. The intent is discovery of principles of infectious disease transmission and testing mathematical or computational models that elucidate infectious disease systems. Projects should be broad, interdisciplinary efforts that go beyond the scope of typical studies. They should focus on the determinants and interactions of transmission among humans, non-human animals, and/or plants. This includes, for example, the spread of pathogens; the influence of environmental factors such as climate; the population dynamics and genetics of reservoir species or hosts; the cultural, social, behavioral, and economic dimensions of disease transmission. Research may be on zoonotic, environmentally-borne, vector-borne, or enteric diseases of either terrestrial or freshwater systems and organisms, including diseases of animals and plants, at any scale from specific pathogens to inclusive environmental systems. Proposals for research on disease systems of public health concern to developing countries are strongly encouraged, as are disease systems of concern in agricultural systems. Investigators are encouraged to develop the appropriate multidisciplinary team, including for example, modelers, bioinformaticians, genomics researchers, social scientists, economists, epidemiologists, entomologists, parasitologists, microbiologists, bacteriologists, virologists, pathologists or veterinarians, with the goal of integrating knowledge across disciplines to enhance our ability to predict and control infectious diseases.

The National Toxicology Program (NTP) was established within the Department of Health and Human Services and charged with coordinating toxicological testing programs within the Public Health Service of the Department. The NTP, as part of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), is responsible for evaluating the toxic and carcinogenic potential of environmental agents that may pose a health hazard to citizens of the United States. The NTP requires support for the conduct of short- and long-term toxicity and carcinogenicity studies following exposure to a variety of test agents by various routes of exposure. This requirement is designed to study diverse agents that may include: environmental chemicals; chemicals used in manufacturing or industrial settings; naturally occurring chemicals; food additives, preservatives, colorants or flavorings; pharmaceuticals, botanically- and non botanically-based dietary supplements; herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides; ingredients found in a wide variety of consumer products including soaps, lotions, perfumes and cosmetics; chemicals used in detergents and cleaners, etc.; naturally occurring and synthetic fibers, nanomaterials including carbon nanotubes; metals; plasticizers; flame retardants; mold or mold components; or other agents not specified at this time.

The Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases program supports research on the ecological, evolutionary, and socio-ecological principles and processes that influence the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases. The central theme of submitted projects must be quantitative or computational understanding of pathogen transmission dynamics. The intent is discovery of principles of infectious disease transmission and testing mathematical or computational models that elucidate infectious disease systems. Projects should be broad, interdisciplinary efforts that go beyond the scope of typical studies. They should focus on the determinants and interactions of transmission among humans, non-human animals, and/or plants. This includes, for example, the spread of pathogens; the influence of environmental factors such as climate; the population dynamics and genetics of reservoir species or hosts; or the cultural, social, behavioral, and economic dimensions of disease transmission. Research may be on zoonotic, environmentally-borne, vector-borne, or enteric diseases of either terrestrial or freshwater systems and organisms, including diseases of animals and plants, at any scale from specific pathogens to inclusive environmental systems. Proposals for research on disease systems of public health concern to developing countries are strongly encouraged, as are disease systems of concern in agricultural systems. Investigators are encouraged to involve the public health research community, including for example, epidemiologists, physicians, veterinarians, food scientists, social scientists, entomologists, pathologists, virologists, or parasitologists with the goal of integrating knowledge across disciplines to enhance our ability to predict and control infectious diseases.

The Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases program supports research on the ecological, evolutionary, and socio-ecological principles and processes that influence the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases. The central theme of submitted projects must be quantitative or computational understanding of pathogen transmission dynamics. The intent is discovery of principles of infectious disease transmission and testing mathematical or computational models that elucidate infectious disease systems. Projects should be broad, interdisciplinary efforts that go beyond the scope of typical studies. They should focus on the determinants and interactions of transmission among humans, non-human animals, and/or plants. This includes, for example, the spread of pathogens; the influence of environmental factors such as climate; the population dynamics and genetics of reservoir species or hosts; or the cultural, social, behavioral, and economic dimensions of disease transmission. Research may be on zoonotic, environmentally-borne, vector-borne, or enteric diseases of either terrestrial or freshwater systems and organisms, including diseases of animals and plants, at any scale from specific pathogens to inclusive environmental systems. Proposals for research on disease systems of public health concern to developing countries are strongly encouraged, as are disease systems of concern in agricultural systems. Investigators are encouraged to involve the public health research community, including for example, epidemiologists, physicians, veterinarians, food scientists, social scientists, entomologists, pathologists, virologists, or parasitologists with the goal of integrating knowledge across disciplines to enhance our ability to predict and control infectious diseases.

The purpose of this FOA is to provide support for research projects that involve secondary data analyses of existing genome-wide data from genome-wide association studies or other large genomic datasets for the purpose of identifying gene-environment interactions. The ultimate objective of this funding opportunity is the discovery of complex interplays of genes and environmental factors in human populations which may disclose novel genetic susceptibilities to environmental exposures or a greater understanding of the role of environmental exposures in the development, progression, and severity of complex human diseases.