Group items tagged

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) have adopted its use and translated the variables into civil engineering applications, specifically pavement design. FHWA's Long Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) Climate Tool provides access to the MERRA-2 database and generates site-specific climate data in compatible formats for AASHTO Pavement ME Design (Pavement ME). AASHTO will soon use MERRA-2 climatic data for AASHTOWare applications. MERRA-2 data sets include accurate hourly solar radiation values based on measured cloud-covered fractions which can significantly improve the accuracy of predicted pavement temperatures. Studies reveal challenges in matching the predictions from the Enhanced Integrated Climatic Model (EICM) with field observations and pavement performance. Variations in measurement of climatic attributes have also been reported to Operating Weather Stations (OWS). MERRA-2 data provides opportunities for enhancements to the climatic parameters and climatic module calculations for pavement design using Pavement ME. It provides improved climatology, higher frequency outputs including hourly data updates, and additional locations beyond the United States. Available data categories include: temperature, precipitation, surface pressure, cloud cover, humidity, wind speed, and solar radiation. The objectives of this project are to (1) evaluate the impact of using NASA's Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications version 2 (MERRA-2) through the FHWA LTPP Climate Tool to improve the climatic inputs and related models for Pavement ME; (2) enhance and simplify climate input parameters for Pavement ME that can be implemented by transportation agencies; and (3) develop climate-related models based on identified parameter enhancements

This Biological and Environmental Research/Advanced Scientific Computing Research (BERASCR) Scientific Discovery Thru Advanced Computing (SciDAC) Partnership FOA will enable scientists to conduct complex scientific and engineering computations at a level of fidelity needed to simulate real-world climate conditions, by supporting deep, necessary, and productive collaborations between climate scientists on the one hand and applied mathematicians and computer scientists on the other, that overcome the barriers between these disciplines and consequently fully exploit the capabilities of Department of Energy (DOE) High Performance Computing (HPC) systems in order to accelerate advances in climate science. This SciDAC opportunity targets three particular topics of high-priority for DOE climate research that are expected to be transformed by effective climate-computational partnerships: the development of new and innovative methods to predict sea-level change; the development of a theoretical statistical-numerical framework to improve climate prediction; and the development of improved methods for model component coupling. The next-generation climate model capabilities will contribute to the newly launched Accelerated Climate Model for Energy (ACME) and further its progress toward design of climate codes for leadership class computers and in support of energy science and mission requirements.

The RISA program supports the development of knowledge, expertise, and abilities of decision-makers to plan and prepare for climate variability and change. Through regionally-focused and interdisciplinary research and engagement teams, RISA builds and expands the Nation's capacity to adapt and become resilient to extreme weather events and climate change. RISA teams accomplish this through co-developed applied research and partnerships with public and private communities. A central tenet of the RISA program is that learning about climate adaptation and resilience is facilitated by and sustained across a wide range of experts, practitioners, and the public. As such, the RISA program supports a network of people, prioritizing wide participation in learning by doing, learning through adapting, and managing risk with uncertain information. Early decades of the program focused on understanding the use of climate information at regional scales (e.g., through experimental seasonal outlooks), improving predictions and scenarios, building capacity for drought early warning, and advancing the science of climate impact assessments. More recently, emphasis has shifted to address the growing urgency to advance approaches that tackle the complex societal issues surrounding adaptation planning, implementation, and building community resilience. To do so, RISA continues to prioritize collaborative approaches that incorporate multiple knowledge sources and integrate social, physical, and natural science, resulting in long-term support of and increased capacity for communities.

The goal of research funded under the interdisciplinary P2C2 solicitation is to utilize key geological, chemical, atmospheric (gas in ice cores), and biological records of climate system variability to provide insights into the mechanisms and rate of change that characterized Earth's past climate variability, the sensitivity of Earth's climate system to changes in forcing, and the response of key components of the Earth system to these changes.

Energy cooperation is a central element of the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership. Recognizing the need to address climate change, ensure mutual energy security, and build a clean energy economy that drives investment, job creation, and economic growth; India and the United States launched the U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) on November 24, 2009 under the U.S.-India Memorandum of Understanding to enhance cooperation on Energy Security, Energy Efficiency, Clean Energy and Climate Change. As a priority initiative under the PACE umbrella, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Government of India signed an agreement to establish the Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center (JCERDC) on November 4, 2010. The JCERDC is designed to promote clean energy innovation by teams of scientists and engineers from India and the United States.

Energy cooperation is a central element of the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership. Recognizing the need to address climate change, ensure mutual energy security, and build a clean energy economy that drives investment, job creation, and economic growth; India and the United States launched the U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) on November 24, 2009 under the U.S.-India Memorandum of Understanding to enhance cooperation on Energy Security, Energy Efficiency, Clean Energy and Climate Change. As a priority initiative under the PACE umbrella, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Government of India signed an agreement to establish the Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center (JCERDC) on November 4, 2010. The JCERDC is designed to promote clean energy innovation by teams of scientists and engineers from India and the United States.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications proposing research that will contribute to an improved ability to understand and anticipate the public health and environmental impacts and behavioral drivers of significant changes in energy production and consumption in the United States, particularly those changes associated with advancing toward the deep decarbonization necessary to achieve national and international climate change mitigation objectives and avoid the most significant health, environmental, and economic impacts of climate change. The proposed research is intended to contribute to the development of new insights and predictive tools related to the multimedia, life-cycle impacts of the decarbonization of electricity generation; the electrification of end uses; the adoption of low-carbon emitting, renewable fuels; and the adoption of energy efficiency measures. The proposed research is also intended to contribute to an improved understanding of the drivers of individual, firm (i.e. business), and community decisions that affect energy consumption patterns, including decisions about the adoption of new technologies and energy efficiency measures.

The NSF ADVANCE program contributes to the National Science Foundation's goal of a more diverse and capable science and engineering workforce.1 In this solicitation, the NSF ADVANCE program seeks to build on prior NSF ADVANCE work and other research and literature concerning gender, racial, and ethnic equity. The NSF ADVANCE program goal is to broaden the implementation of evidence-based systemic change strategies that promote equity for STEM2 faculty in academic workplaces and the academic profession. The NSF ADVANCE program provides grants to enhance the systemic factors that support equity and inclusion and to mitigate the systemic factors that create inequities in the academic profession and workplaces. Systemic (or organizational) inequities may exist in areas such as policy and practice as well as in organizational culture and climate. For example, practices in academic departments that result in the inequitable allocation of service or teaching assignments may impede research productivity, delay advancement, and create a culture of differential treatment and rewards. Similarly, policies and procedures that do not mitigate implicit bias in hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions could lead to women and racial and ethnic minorities being evaluated less favorably, perpetuating historical under-participation in STEM academic careers and contributing to an academic climate that is not inclusive.

The NSF ADVANCE program provides grants to enhance the systemic factors that support equity and inclusion and to mitigate the systemic factors that create inequities in the academic profession and workplaces. Systemic (or organizational) inequities may exist in areas such as policy and practice as well as in organizational culture and climate. For example, practices in academic departments that result in the inequitable allocation of service or teaching assignments may impede research productivity, delay advancement, and create a culture of differential treatment and rewards. Similarly, policies and procedures that do not mitigate implicit bias in hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions could lead to women and racial and ethnic minorities being evaluated less favorably, perpetuating historical under-participation in STEM academic careers and contributing to an academic climate that is not inclusive. All NSF ADVANCE proposals are expected to use intersectional approaches in the design of systemic change strategies in recognition that gender, race and ethnicity do not exist in isolation from each other and from other categories of social identity. The solicitation includes four funding tracks: Institutional Transformation (IT), Adaptation, Partnership, and Catalyst, in support of the NSF ADVANCE program goal to broaden the implementation of systemic strategies that promote equity for STEM faculty in academic workplaces and the academic profession.

The Civil Infrastructure Systems (CIS) program supports research leading to the engineering of infrastructure systems for resilience and sustainability without excluding other key performance issues.  Areas of interest include intra- and inter-physical, information and behavioral dependencies of infrastructure systems, infrastructure management, construction engineering, and transportation systems.  Special emphasis is on the design, construction, operation, and improvement of infrastructure networks with a focus on systems engineering and design, performance management, risk analysis, life-cycle analysis, modeling and simulation, behavioral and social considerations not excluding other methodological areas or the integration of methods. This program does not encourage research proposals primarily focused on structural engineering, materials or sensors that support infrastructure system design, extreme event modeling, hydrological engineering, and climate modeling, since they do not fall within the scope of the CIS program.

Despite significant increases in the proportion of women pursuing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) doctoral degrees, women are significantly underrepresented as faculty, particularly in upper ranks, and in academic administrative positions, in almost all STEM fields.  The problems of recruitment, retention, and advancement that are the causes of this underrepresentation vary by discipline and across groups of women faculty (e.g., by race/ethnicity, disability status, sexual orientation, foreign-born and foreign-trained status, and faculty appointment type).  The ADVANCE program is designed to foster gender equity through a focus on the identification and elimination of organizational barriers that impede the full participation and advancement of all women faculty in academic institutions.  Organizational barriers that inhibit equity may exist in areas such as policy, practice, culture, and organizational climate.

Grants will support the development of research and practices that focus on the human dynamics of resilience. Specifically, we are interested in projects that enhance community resilience and well-being by accounting for the influence of social, cultural, and health factors on a community's capacity to adapt and thrive as part of efforts to mitigate and respond to the adverse impacts of climate change, severe weather, and major environmental disasters. Proposed projects should bring together researchers, practitioners, and individuals from communities, including those from community organizations, state and local government, industry, and local businesses, so that all relevant perspectives inform possible approaches to advancing the science and practice of resilience. Involvement of local leaders and community members, particularly those substantially affected, is strongly encouraged.

RWJF is now looking for researchers to study the impact the program has had on the changing face of nursing. Up to four grants of $3,000 each will be awarded to individual researchers for the development of a manuscript in one of the following categories: supports and barriers for accelerated nursing students; characteristics of male nursing students; increasing diversity and cultural climate of nursing schools; student debt and accelerated nursing education: policy implications; and effective mentoring/necessary components.

The U.S. Embassy in Australia invites Australian organizations and individuals to submit proposals for funding of programs that increase mutual understanding between the U.S. and Australia and promote the bilateral relationship. Topic areas eligible for funding include: entrepreneurship and innovation; U.S. policies, society, culture and values; cultural diversity; academic integration and advancement; civic participation; countering violent extremism; global challenges such as climate change, clean energy, promotion of STEM, human rights, economic development, health, LGBTI issues, and marginalized populations. Most grants funded are in the $5,000 to $15,000 range, though proposals for higher amounts will be considered if the project is of particular value to advancing the U.S.-Australia relationship. Proposals that include cost sharing by the applicant or another relevant organization are encouraged.

Over the past few years, Project Open Data (https://project-open-data.cio.gov/) has sought to identify and share best practices, examples, and software code to assist federal agencies with opening up access to data. Moreover, there have been efforts to scale up "open data" across various application sectors, including health, energy, climate, education and learning, finance, public safety, and global development, unlocking valuable data and improving decision making by making data resources more open and accessible to innovators and the public. NSF has established a national network of Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs and Spokes (BD Hubs and Spokes), comprising members from academia, industry, and government, with the goal of igniting new public-private partnerships across the Nation in big data research and development as well as training and education. Facilitating access to data is one of the objectives of the BD Hubs and Spokes. Collectively, these initiatives constitute an important first step in supporting the growing and interdisciplinary data science research community, which requires access to real-world datasets, e.g., as training data that can further data science, including machine learning capabilities, and enhance knowledge and decision making in various application sectors.

IODP scientific objectives require a heavy vessel for drilling deep sedimentary and crustal holes, a lighter vessel to provide widely distributed arrays of high resolution cores to address climate, environmental, and observatory objectives, and use of other drilling platforms, called Mission Specific Platforms (MSP's), for the Arctic and shallow water projects which can't be undertaken from the two primary IODP vessels.

The Civil Infrastructure Systems (CIS) program supports research leading to the engineering of infrastructure systems for resilience and sustainability without excluding other key performance issues. Areas of interest include intra- and inter-physical, information and behavioral dependencies of infrastructure systems, infrastructure management, construction engineering, and transportation systems. Special emphasis is on the design, construction, operation, and improvement of infrastructure networks with a focus on systems engineering and design, performance management, risk analysis, life-cycle analysis, modeling and simulation, behavioral and social considerations not excluding other methodological areas or the integration of methods.This program does not encourage research proposals primarily focused on structural engineering, materials or sensors that support infrastructure system design, extreme event modeling, hydrological engineering, and climate modeling, since they do not fall within the scope of the CIS program. Researchers focused in these areas are encouraged to contact the Infrastructure Management and Extreme Events (IMEE), Geotechnical Engineering (GTE), Hazard Mitigation and Structural Engineering (HSME), Structural Materials and Mechanics (SMM), or the Sensors and Sensing Systems (SSS) program within CMMI. Additionally, researchers may consider contacting the Hydrologic Sciences program in the Earth Sciences Division (EAR) or the Physical and Dynamic Meteorology (PDM) program in the Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences Division (AGS) of the Directorate for Geosciences.

Integrated Earth Systems (IES) is a program in the Division of Earth Sciences (EAR) that focuses on the continental, terrestrial and deep Earth subsystems of the whole Earth system.  The overall goal of the program is to provide opportunity for collaborative, multidisciplinary research into the operation, dynamics and complexity of Earth systems at a budgetary scale between that of a typical project in the EAR Division's disciplinary programs and larger scale initiatives at the Directorate or Foundation level. Specifically, IES will provide research opportunities for the study of Earth systems from the core of the Earth to the top of the critical zone with a specific focus on subsystems that include continental, terrestrial and deep Earth subsystems at all temporal and spatial scales (NROES, 2012).  IES will provide opportunities to focus on Earth systems connected to topics which include (but are not limited to) the continents; the terrestrial, surficial Earth systems including physical, chemical and biotic dimensions; linkages among tectonics, climate, landscape change, topography and geochemical cycles including core and mantle processes.

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 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 Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), invests in high-risk, high-value research, development and deployment in energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. EERE, through the Building Technologies Office (BTO) seeks to develop technologies, techniques, and tools for making buildings more energy efficient, productive, and affordable. BTO's strategic goal is to significantly improve the energy efficiency of new and existing buildings to reduce national energy demand and allow the nation to work toward greater energy independence and a cleaner environment. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is targeted specifically at research to increase energy savings and reduce consumer bills through improved compliance with building energy codes. The first and largest topic area for this FOA is to develop and test a methodology for identifying the commercial energy code requirements that can provide the maximum cost-effective energy and cost savings through increased compliance. The methodology will be tested in selected building types and climate zones. Quantifying those savings will create the foundations of a business case for private investors, particularly utilities, to fund programs aimed at increasing compliance. The empirical data to support such an investment does not currently exist.