OARS funding Environmental Sustainability

The National Aquatic Resource Survey (NARS) Campus Research Challenge gives undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to use NARS data to conduct further scientific research and analysis. This challenge is intended to encourage external, innovative research and information development in support of enhanced water management at multiple scales. EPA will award up to $50,000 in two phases with prizes of $2,000 in phase one and $5,000 in phase two. In addition, winners will receive national recognition for their university, students and project by being featured on the National Aquatic Resource Surveys Campus Research Challenge website.  Winners may be offered opportunities to speak on webcasts, at meetings, or at other events.

The Mountaineers Foundation promotes the study of the mountains, forests and streams of the Pacific Northwest, and contributes to preserving its natural beauty and ecological integrity. We fund modest, short-term projects consistent with those purposes, with a maximum grant normally at $5000. Our funding criteria are based on our by-laws, articles of incorporation, and status as an IRS-designated 501(c)(3) organization. We Support selected projects of 501(c)(3) or of other non-profit organizations and of certain agencies such as libraries and schools; and, occasionally, projects by individuals. research about the natural environment: studies that will yield new data aimed at protecting Northwest wilderness and wildlife biologic, economic, legal, or policy studies direct educational programs and materials related to environmental preservation lectures, conferences, seminars written or audiovisual awareness materials curriculum or other instructional materials publication of conference proceedings, journal articles other fundable projects: seed or pilot studies that can be continued with funding from other sources selected capital improvement projects (e.g., restoration; assistance in purchasing equipment/materials)

The Expeditions Council is an editorially driven grant program that supports exploration and adventure worldwide.  Proposed projects must have the potential to yield compelling stories and images. Applications are also judged on the qualifications of applicants and their teams, and on the project's merit, uniqueness and safety protocols. The Council consists of representatives of National Geographic editorial divisions (magazines, television, books, website, and so on) who review and vote on grant applications, as well as an advisory board of external consultants. While the Expeditions Council funds a broad range of exploration and adventure, if a project is based on scientific inquiry, applicants must provide detailed methodology.  In addition, all projects must adhere to applicable scientific or professional ethical standards, which are outlined in the grant application and are subject to scientific review The Expeditions Council offers its grantees the opportunity to work effectively with National Geographic's many divisions. Grantees are therefore able to share the results of their expeditions with National Geographic's global audience.

The purpose of the program is to conduct research utilizing a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the complex relationships among weather, climate, human health and ecosystems; and training the next generation of scientists in these complex, yet interconnected areas; thus, ultimately increasing novel and practical applications of public health and climate science for the prevention of disease and protection of public health.

The theme of this year's Geothermal Student Competition, sponsored by DOE is GeoEnergy is Beautiful 2014. Student teams from leading colleges and universities, as well as high school seniors are invited to create concepts for high-quality, high-impact infographics and outreach materials that convey the important role of geothermal energy in the nation's clean energy mix. Energy production can be a complex topic to explain to a broad public audience, and describing energy that comes from a subsurface environment-difficult to visualize for many-amplifies the challenge of explaining geothermal energy, how it works, and how it can benefit the U.S.  The GSC therefore invites student to develop cutting-edge geothermal communications tools that marry accurate, technical information with a graphical visualization. These visualizations, often referred to as infographics, are put to use in various media outlets by the federal government, private companies, institutions and individuals to convey ideas and messages. Infographics provide the opportunity to distill large quantities of data and information to facilitate insight, comprehend relationships and patterns, and understand complex messages with a minimum of words.  

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) will issue, on behalf of the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled ?Bioenergy Technologies Incubator?. BETO?s mission is to engage in research and development (R&D) and demonstration at increasing scale activities to transform renewable biomass resources into commercially viable, high-performance biofuels, and bioproducts and biopower that enable biofuel production. To accomplish this mission, BETO develops a strategic plan, or multi-year program plan , to identify the technical challenges and barriers that need to be overcome. However, BETO recognizes that there may be novel and potentially disruptive ideas that do not necessarily align well with BETO?s current multi-year program plan yet still meet the goals and mission of BETO. The Bioenergy Incubator Program is intended to identify these potentially impactful technologies and solutions that are not meaningfully addressed in BETO?s strategic plan or project portfolio. It is NOT intended to fund projects that are incremental improvements to current products or processes or for established work in BETO?s strategic plan or cur rent portfolio.

NIFA initiates a new challenge area to address critical water resources issues such as drought, excess soil moisture, flooding, quality and others in an agricultural context. Funding will be used to develop management practices, technologies, and tools for farmers, ranchers, forest owners and managers, public decision makers, public and private managers, and citizens to improve water resource quantity and quality. NIFA's approach will link social, economic, and behavioral sciences with traditional biophysical sciences and engineering to address regional-scale issues with shared hydrological processes and meteorological and basin characteristics.

The MacroSystems Biology: Research on Biological Systems at Regional to Continental Scales will support quantitative, interdisciplinary, systems-oriented research on biosphere processes and their complex interactions with climate, land use, and invasive species at regional to continental scales as well as planning, training, and development activities to enable groups to conduct MacroSystems Biology Research.

This announcement seeks out technologies and methodologies to reduce environmental impacts from current and past Navy operations, and applies to Navy installations worldwide. NAVFAC EXWC is interested in environmental technologies and methodologies that are either new, innovative, advance the state-of-the-art, or increase knowledge or understanding of a technology or methodology.

Reducing risk through improved drilling success rates is critical to securing financing and ultimately lowering overall costs for developing geothermal power projects. This success hinges on knowledge of the geological, geophysical, and geochemical characteristics that indicate geothermal favorability; along with improved coverage of data that are signatures of the key properties of temperature, permeability, and fluid. To this end, GTO is interested in projects that apply innovative exploration technologies to collect new data and/or apply new analysis methods to extract new value from data. Successful applications will focus on one of the regions identified in GTO?s Data Gap Analysis, and include a significant component of uncertainty analysis that directly demonstrates potential or real impact on success rates. Projects should lead to the development of a Geothermal Play Fairway, which details a specific region constrained through a favorabl e combination of structural and hydrological conditions.

A sustainable world is one in which human needs are met equitably and without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their needs.  Meeting this formidable challenge requires a substantial increase in our understanding of the integrated system of society, the natural world, and the alterations humans bring to Earth.  NSF's Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (SEES) activities aim to address this need through support for interdisciplinary research and education. Coastal SEES is focused on the sustainability of coastal systems.  For this solicitation we define coastal systems as the swath of land closely connected to the sea, including barrier islands, wetlands, mudflats, beaches, estuaries, cities, towns, recreational areas, and maritime facilities; the continental seas and shelves; and the overlying atmosphere.

The Division of Environmental Biology (DEB) supports fundamental research on populations, species, communities, and ecosystems. Scientific emphases range across many evolutionary and ecological patterns and processes at all spatial and temporal scales. Areas of research include biodiversity, phylogenetic systematics, molecular evolution, life history evolution, natural selection, ecology, biogeography, ecosystem structure, function and services, conservation biology, global change, and biogeochemical cycles. Research on organismal origins, functions, relationships, interactions, and evolutionary history may incorporate field, laboratory, or collection-based approaches; observational or manipulative experiments; synthesis activities; as well as theoretical approaches involving analytical, statistical, or computational modeling.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications focusing on integrated, transdisciplinary research that would advance scientific understanding of potential for impacts to ecosystem wellbeing associated with the use of manufactured chemicals. Specifically, the RFA would solicit proposals for systems-based research to develop and apply innovative metrics and modeling approaches to improve evaluation of ecological resilience and impact analyses, and to support environmental sustainability. Successful proposals will translate emerging and advanced methods, data, and computational tools to address complexity of these systems and distill drivers of adverse outcomes to ecological organisms and populations.

Under this solicitation EPA is seeking grant applications from eligible applicants to support environmental education projects that promote environmental stewardship and help develop knowledgeable and responsible students, teachers, and citizens. This grant program provides financial support for projects that design, demonstrate, and/or disseminate environmental education practices, methods, or techniques, as described in this notice, and that will serve as models that can be replicated in a variety of settings. Under this solicitation EPA expects to award environmental education grants from the 10 EPA Regional offices and from Headquarters.

NOAA delivers funding and technical expertise to restore Great Lakes coastal habitats. These habitats support valuable fisheries and protected resources; improve the quality of our water; provide recreational opportunities for the public's use and enjoyment; and buffer our coastal communities from the impacts of changing lake levels. Projects funded through NOAA have strong on-the-ground habitat restoration components that provide social and economic benefits for people and their communities in addition to long-term ecological habitat improvements. Through this solicitation, NOAA seeks to openly compete funding available for habitat restoration in U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern (http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/aoc/) under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative as anticipated in the President's FY2014 Budget. Applications should be submitted for any project that is to be considered for this funding, even for those projects already submitted as applications to other NOAA competitions. Competition will ensure that the most beneficial restoration projects are selected to realize significant ecological gains. Applications selected for funding through this solicitation will be implemented through a grant or cooperative agreement, with awards dependent upon the amount of funds made available to NOAA for this purpose by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. NOAA anticipates up to $4 million may be available for Great Lakes coastal habitat restoration; typical awards for on the ground implementation are expected to range between $500,000 and $2 million. NOAA will also accept proposals for engineering and design of habitat restoration projects; typical awards are expected to range between $75,000 and $350,000. Funds will be administered by the Great Lakes Region of NOAA's Restoration Center (RC).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications to conduct research on and demonstration of human and ecological impacts of treated wastewater applications (reclaimed water and wastewater reuse), and water conservation practices including the use of non-traditional water sources as well as more comprehensive long-term management and availability of water resources.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications to conduct research on and demonstration of human and ecological impacts of treated wastewater applications (reclaimed water and wastewater reuse), and water conservation practices including the use of non-traditional water sources as well as more comprehensive long-term management and availability of water resources.

The purpose of the BRAG program is to support the generation of new information that will assist Federal regulatory agencies in making science-based decisions about the effects of introducing into the environment genetically engineered organisms (GE), including plants, microorganisms (including fungi, bacteria, and viruses), arthropods, fish, birds, mammals and other animals excluding humans. Investigations of effects on both managed and natural environments are relevant. The BRAG program accomplishes its purpose by providing Federal regulatory agencies with scientific information relevant to regulatory issues. 

The American Honda Foundation engages in grant making that reflects the basic tenets, beliefs and philosophies of Honda companies, which are characterized by the following qualities: imaginative, creative, youthful, forward-thinking, scientific, humanistic and innovative. We support youth education with a specific focus on the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects in addition to the environment.

The Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) of the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), hereby announces its interest in receiving applications for research that supports the Genomic Science research program (http://genomicscience.energy.gov). In this FOA, applications are requested for: i) Research to advance the development of promising new model organisms relevant to biofuels production , ii) development of novel microbial functional capabilities and biosynthetic pathways relevant to the production of advanced biofuels and the development of strategies to overcome associated metabolic challenges resulting from pathway modification, and iii) development of novel analytical technologies or high-throughput screening approaches relating to research in bullets i and ii.