OARS funding Environmental Sustainability

The third joint transnational call of the ERA-NET SIINN is open for the submission of innovative transnational research proposals focused on manufactured nanomaterials (MNMs) in the four topics listed below: Exposure assessment Toxicity mechanisms Effects of MNMs on human health Environmental impacts of MNMs Please read carefully the following call documents:

Proposals for solid waste research are requested that fit within the EREF's Strategic Research Plan.

The Nation faces an increasing set of water resource challenges. Aging infrastructure, rapid population growth, depletion of groundwater resources, impaired water quality associated with particular land uses and land covers, water needed for human and environmental uses, and climate variability and change all play a role in determining the amount of fresh water available at any given place and time. Water shortages and water-use conflicts have become more commonplace in many areas of the United States, even in normal water years. As competition for water resources grows-for crop irrigation, growing cities and communities, energy production, and the environment-the need for information and tools to aid water resource managers also grows. Water issues and challenges are increasing across the Nation, but particularly in the West, due to prolonged drought. These water issues are exacerbating the challenges facing traditional water management approaches which by themselves no longer meet today's needs. The U.S. Department of the Interior's (Department) WaterSMART (Sustain and Manage America's Resources for Tomorrow) Program establishes a framework to provide Federal leadership and assistance on the efficient use of water, integrating water and energy policies to support the sustainable use of all natural resources, and coordinating the water conservation activities of various Department bureaus and offices. Through the WaterSMART Program, the Department is working to achieve a sustainable water management strategy to meet the Nation's water needs.

The SunShot Initiative (SunShot) is a national collaborative effort to make solar energy cost-competitive with other forms of electricity by the end of the decade. The installed cost of solar photovoltaics (PV) has reduced significantly in recent years, spurring significant and accelerating deployment of PV systems. With the anticipated proliferation of solar power at the centralized and distributed scales, the variability and uncertainty of the solar resource poses challenges for reliably integrating photovoltaics (PV) with electric power systems, both at the distribution and bulk system levels. The goal of the Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, SHINES Funding Opportunity is to enable the development and demonstration of integrated, scalable, and cost-effective technologies for solar that incorporates energy storage and works seamlessly to meet both consumer needs and the needs of the electricity grid. Such an integrated solution should utilize smart inverters, and be capable of working with smart buildings, smart appliances, and utility communication and control systems. The solutions thus developed will enable widespread sustainable deployment of low-cost, flexible, and reliable PV generation, and provide for successful integration of PV power plants with the electric grid. The full Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is posted on the EERE eXCHANGE website at https://eere-exchange.energy.gov. Applications must be submitted through the EERE eXCHANGE website to be considered for award. The applicant must first register and create an account on the EERE eXCHANGE website. A User Guide for the EERE eXCHANGE can be found on the EERE website https://eere- exchange.energy.gov/Manuals.aspx after logging in to the system. Information on where to submit questions regarding the content of the announcement and where to submit questions regarding submission of applications is found in the full FOA posted on the EERE eXCHANGE website.

The NOAA/NASA/DOD Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA) is a distributed center that engages units of NASA: Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Earth-Sun Exploration Division; NOAA: NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) , National Weather Service (NWS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), and Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR); US Navy: Oceanographer of the Navy and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL); and US Air Force Air Weather Agency. The Joint Center's goal is to accelerate the abilities of NOAA, DoD, and NASA to ingest and effectively use the large volumes of data from current satellite-based instruments and planned satellite missions. The JCSDA supports scientific development work in the following priority areas (1) Radiative transfer, (2) Clouds and precipitation data assimilation, (3) Advanced instruments data assimilation, (4) Land data assimilation, (5) Ocean data assimilation and (6) Air Composition data assimilation. JCSDA research is performed internally (internal research) as well as externally using grants and/or contracts awarded via a competitive process open to the broader scientific community (external research). The overarching goal of JCSDA research is to accelerate the assimilation of satellite data in US operational numerical environment forecast models. A primary measure of potential impact in this solicitation will be the acceleration of satellite data usage into NOAA, and DoD forecast systems, and the improvement of forecasts from those systems.

OVERVIEW INFORMATIONCatalog of Domestic Assistance Number is 10.674Program name is Wood Utilization AssistanceImportant Dates:October 27, 2014 Issuance of Request for ProposalsJanuary 23, 2015 Proposal submission deadlineSynopsis of Funding OpportunityThe U.S. Forest Service (Forest Service) requests proposals to substantially expand and accelerate wood energy and wood products markets throughout the United States to support forest management needs on National Forest System and other forest lands. This Request for Proposals focuses on the following priorities:* Reduce hazardous fuels and improve forest health on National Forest System and other forest lands. * Reduce costs of forest management on all land types.* Promote economic and environmental health of communities.Funding will be awarded in two separate grant categories: GRANT CATEGORY 1: EXPANSION OF WOOD ENERGY MARKETSThe intent of this category is to stimulate, expand, or support wood energy markets that depend on forest residues or forest byproducts generated from all land types. Preference will be given to projects that make use of low-value wood generated from National Forest System and other forest lands with high wildfire risk. Subcategories include:1. Statewide Wood Energy Teams 2. Wood Energy Projects3. Wood Energy MarketsGRANT CATEGORY 2: EXPANSION OF WOOD PRODUCTS MARKETSThe intent of this category is to promote markets that create or expand the demand for non-energy based wood products. Preference will be given to projects that support commercial building markets or other markets that use existing or innovative wood products. Wood energy projects will not be considered under this category because those projects can apply for funding under Grant Category 1. Completed electronic applications are due to the Regional Biomass Coordinator designated for your Forest Service region by 11:59 p.m. on January 23, 2015.Each submittal must consist of two separate PDF files, as follows: 1. Proposal narrati

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.  

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications proposing research to advance knowledge of how changes in water quality, including incremental or step improvements, can be valued at appropriate spatial scales using advanced non-use valuation methods for the Nation's inland fresh water small streams, lakes and rivers, estuaries, coastal waters, and the Great Lakes. For purposes of this Request for Applications (RFA), small streams are defined as streams that are perennial and wadeable.

Benefit-Cost Analysis is a widely employed approach for evaluating the economic consequences of environmental decisions. For environmental quality improvements, particularly those involving air pollution controls, major investments have been made in data collection and modeling methods. As a result, public and private stakeholders have well-developed tools available to inform their understanding of air pollution policies. America's water resources are also at risk of degradation from chemical and microbial pollutants and changing climatic conditions; however, the ability to estimate the benefits of water quality improvements has lagged behind analogous work for air quality. The U.S. GAO (2014) recently noted the challenges associated with valuing water quality. In addition, how differences in spatial scales impact water quality benefits is not well understood. It is recognized that actions that improve water quality in headwater streams, for example, can affect the quality of downstream waters, thereby supplying benefits far from the site of action. The U.S. EPA is interested in supporting research to improve non-use valuation methods that will enable public and private stakeholders to better evaluate water quality for the Nation's inland fresh water small streams, lakes and rivers, estuaries, coastal waters, and the Great Lakes.  For purposes of this RFA, small streams are defined as streams that are perennial and wadeable. 

B-WET Chesapeake is a competitive grant program that supports existing, high-quality environmental education programs, fosters the growth of new, innovative programs, and encourages capacity building and partnership development for environmental education programs throughout the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed. Successful projects advance the environmental literacy goal of the Chesapeake Bay Agreement and goals of the NOAA Education Strategic Plan by providing hands-on environmental education about issues affecting the Chesapeake Bay watershed for students and related professional development for teachers, administrators, and other educators who serve formal K-12 audiences. These Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEEs) integrate field experiences with classroom activities and instruction in NOAA-related science content.

The purpose of this action is to notify potential applicants that a modification to this FOA has been issued. Please use the link below to access Modification 0002 in EERE eXCHANGE. Please review important information below about the EERE Exchange website as it relates to this FOA. To address and minimize the regulatory and financial risks associated with wind power development in locations with sensitive bat species, the Department of Energy?s (DOE) Wind and Water Power Technologies Office (WWPTO) within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) seeks to fund Research and Development (R&D) projects that advance the technical readiness of bat impact mitigation and minimization technologies. This FOA will also support the field testing and evaluation of near-commercial bat impact mitigation technologies, which if successful, will provide regulators and wind facility owner-operators with viable and cost effective tools to reduce their impacts on bats and ease the regulatory & financial uncertainty related to the development and long-term operation of wind farms in bat habitat. The full Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is posted on the EERE Exchange website at https://eere-exchange.energy.gov. Applications must be submitted through the EERE Exchange website to be considered for award. The applicant must first register and create an account on the EERE Exchange website. A User Guide for the EERE Exchange website can be found on the website https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/Manuals.aspx. Information on where to submit questions regarding the content of the announcement and where to submit questions regarding submission of applications is found in the full FOA posted on the EERE Exchange website.

For fiscal year (FY) 2015, BRDI will require that funded projects address only one (1) of the following three (3) legislatively mandated technical areas: 1. Feedstocks development - The intent of this Topic Area is to address research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) activities regarding feedstocks and feedstock logistics (including harvest, handling, transport, preprocessing, and storage) relevant to production of raw materials for conversion to biofuels and biobased products. The BRDI program is designed to support near-term commercial systems. Projects should emphasize development and optimization of existing feedstocks that will be available for testing and demonstration during the life of the project. Proposals that include breeding or genetic improvement of feedstocks should reconcile this work with the Program's emphasis on near-term impacts. 2. Biofuels and biobased products development - The intent of this Topic Area is to address RD&D activities to support (i) development of diverse cost-effective technologies for the use of cellulosic biomass in the production of biofuels, bioenergy, and biobased products; and, (ii) product diversification through technologies relevant to the production of a range of biobased products (including chemicals, animal feeds, and cogeneration power) that potentially can increase the feasibility of fuel production in a biorefinery. 3. Biofuels development analysis - The intent of this Topic Area is to apply systems evaluation methods that can be used to optimize system performance and market potential and to quantify the project's impact on sustainability; therefore, successful applications will consider the lifecycle (cradle-to-grave) impacts including environmental, social, and economic implications that are attributable to the project. Successful projects should include these sustainability data in engineering process models and be used over the life of the project to improve the system and quantify sust

The Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act ("Brownfields Law", P.L. 107-118) requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to publish guidance to assist applicants in preparing proposals for grants to assess and clean up brownfield sites. EPA's Brownfields Program provides funds to empower states, communities, tribes, and nonprofits to prevent, inventory, assess, clean up, and reuse brownfield sites. EPA provides brownfields funding for three types of grants: 1. Brownfields Assessment Grants - provides funds to inventory, characterize, assess, and conduct planning (including cleanup planning) and community involvement related to brownfield sites. 2. Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grants - provides funds for a grant recipient to capitalize a revolving fund and to make loans and provide subgrants to conduct cleanup activities at brownfield sites. 3. Brownfields Cleanup Grants - provides funds to conduct cleanup activities at a specific brownfield site owned by the applicant. Under these guidelines, EPA is seeking proposals for Assessment Grants only. If you are interested in requesting funding for Cleanup Grants, please refer to announcement EPA-OSWER-OBLR-14-08 (Cleanup Grant guidelines) posted separately on www.grants.gov and www.epa.gov/brownfields. Note: A solicitation for new Revolving Loan Fund Grants will not be issued in FY15. EPA expects to solicit requests from existing, high performing RLF grantees 2 through a Federal Register notice for supplemental RLF funding in early 2015.

Through research and development of solid state lighting (SSL) including both light emitting diode and organic light emitting diode technologies the objectives of this opportunity are to maximize the energy efficiency of SSL products in the market place, remove market barriers through improvements to lifetime, color quality, and lighting system performance, reduce costs of SSL sources and luminaires, improve product consistency while maintaining high quality products, and encourage the growth, leadership, and sustainability of domestic US manufacturing within the SSL industry.

The Emerging Technologies (ET) Program of the Building Technologies Office (BTO) supports applied research and development for technologies and systems that contribute to building energy consumption. BTO?s goal is to deliver 50% primary energy savings in the year 2030, relative to the baseline energy consumption projected by the 2010 Annual Energy Outlook. The ET Program is helping to meet this goal by enabling cost-effective, energy-efficient technologies to be developed and introduced into the marketplace. The ET Program maintains support for the national laboratories in five core areas: Solid-State Lighting, HVAC (includes water heating and appliances), Sensors & Controls, Windows & Envelope, and Modeling & Tools. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) combines an early-stage research and development topic (Innovations) with a later-stage research and development topic (Frontiers) that complement the core funding provided to the national l abs and allow all interested parties, including corporations, universities, and non-profits as well as the national labs, to contribute to advancement in two of these core technological areas: Non-vapor compression HVAC technologies and advanced vapor compression HVAC technologies. These topics are combined into this single, relatively large FOA in order to reduce administrative costs and to ensure that only the best applications are supported.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is soliciting proposals from eligible applicants to manage the Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant. The objective of the Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant is to accelerate and expand the strategic protection of healthy freshwater ecosystems and their watersheds across the country. The grant program will advance the protection of healthy watersheds by supporting an array of projects that assess, identify, communicate the value, and demonstrate protection of these watersheds.

The Partners for Fish and Wildlife (PFW) Program is a voluntary, incentive-based program that provides direct technical assistance and financial assistance in the form of cooperative agreements to private landowners to restore and conserve fish and wildlife habitat for the benefit of federal trust resources. The PFW Program is delivered through more than 250 full-time staff, active in all 50 States and territories. Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program staff coordinate with project partners, stakeholders and other Service programs to identify geographic focus areas and develop habitat conservation priorities within these focus areas. Geographic focus areas are where the PFW Program directs resources to conserve habitat for federal trust species. Project work plans are developed strategically, in coordination with partners, and with substantial involvement from Service field staff. Projects must advance our mission, promote biological diversity, and be based upon sound scientific biological principles. Program strategic plans inform the types of projects funded under this opportunity. Applicants seeking funding under this program should review the program strategic plan and also contact the regional PFW Program office prior to submitting an application for funding.

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 purpose of this FOA is to invite applications that will seek to prospectively define and/or validate pulmonary or immune system attributes associated with pre-symptomatic disease states or resilience, with the goal of informing the development of primary prevention strategies for chronic lung diseases.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to provide regional access for cryoelectron microscopy (cryoEM) laboratories to state-of-the-art data collection capabilities. NIGMS will support consortia of established and early stage investigator laboratories whose research has an established specialization in and dependence on cryoEM. These laboratories will coordinate with each other to share facilities and resources for direct electron detection. Consortia will consist of a host institution which already has a modern high-performing cryoEM installation and proven capabilities for high-resolution data collection, partnered with regional participating institutions. A consortium will support surplus capacity for cryoEM data collection (infrastructure and services) at the host institution and make it available as a resource for the participating regional institutions. Projects will support access for cryoEM laboratories at participating institutions to resources and services at host sites. Projects will (a) contribute to the fixed costs of maintaining the host facility and extend services in proportion to the resources dedicated to the regional users and (b) support access to the facility by the regional laboratories. The host institution need not already have an electron detector; this FOA can help fund acquisition of direct detection equipment. Support is limited to enabling the participating cryoEM laboratories to collect data and perform the initial stages of processing raw images, and does not include other research activities. Consortia will consist of a minimum of 3-5 institutions; award budgets will depend on the number and data collection needs of the regional participating cryoEM laboratories. This initiative is not intended to support service centers of the traditional type in which the host laboratory performs the cryoEM analysis for non-specialist collaborators.