OARS funding Environmental Sustainability

Together with University Advancement, the Office for the Advancement of Research & Scholarship (OARS) is rolling out an new crowdfunding platform called HawksNest. Through HawksNest, alumni, family, and friends of the university can directly support the research, scholarship, and service projects of Miami University students, faculty, and staff. This is how HawksNest works: * Any Miami University student, faculty, or staff member may complete an online application to have a project considered for funding. * An internal review team assesses applications and posts approved projects on HawksNest for a maximum of 45 days. * Potential donors visit the site to learn about and pledge funds to approved projects. * Once a funding goal has been met, the project can begin! * Project managers use the site to keep donors up-to-date with information on the project's progress.

The overall goal of EESLR is to facilitate informed adaptation planning and coastal management decisions through a multidisciplinary research program that results in integrated models and tools of dynamic physical and biological processes capable of evaluating vulnerability and resilience under multiple SLR, inundation, and coastal management scenarios.

The Office of Science (SC) of the Department of Energy hereby announces its continuing interest in receiving grant applications for support of work in the following program areas: Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Biological and Environmental Research, Fusion Energy Sciences, High Energy Physics, and Nuclear Physics

The key elements for submitting a funding request to the O'Neill Foundation include: The program must be family-centered and aligned with the Foundation's vision, mission and values. The service area for the program must be located in one of the eight geographic areas where O'Neill family members are actively involved in their community (see list below). The program meets the requirements and guidelines for the three funding areas: capacity bulding, special projects and general operating.

The Division of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS) supports research aimed at understanding why organisms are structured the way they are and function as they do. Proposals should focus on organisms as a fundamental unit of biological organization. Principal Investigators (PIs) are encouraged to apply systems approaches that will lead to conceptual and theoretical insights and predictions about emergent organismal properties. Areas of inquiry include, but are not limited to, developmental biology and the evolution of developmental processes, nervous system development, structure, and function, physiological processes, functional morphology, symbioses, interactions of organisms with biotic and abiotic environments, and animal behavior.

Biological Field Stations and Marine Laboratories (FSMLs) are off-campus facilities for research and education conducted in the natural habitats of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems. FSMLs support environmental and basic biological research and education by preserving access to study areas and organisms, by providing facilities and equipment in close proximity to those study areas, and by fostering an atmosphere of mutual scientific interest and collaboration in research and education.

The Engineering for Natural Hazards (ENH) program supports fundamental research to understand and mitigate the impact of natural hazards on constructed civil infrastructure. Natural hazards considered by the ENH program include earthquakes, windstorms (such as tornadoes and hurricanes), tsunamis, and landslides. 

The goal of the Habitable Worlds program is to use knowledge of the history of the Earth and the life upon it as a guide for determining the processes and conditions that create and maintain habitable environments and to search for ancient and contemporary habitable environments and explore the possibility of extant life beyond the Earth.

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) is soliciting proposals from eligible applicants to provide support for training and technical assistance activities to build the capacity of state and tribal officials and nongovernmental stakeholders in the Clean Water Act (CWA) Sections 303(d), 305(b), TMDL Programs, the Nonpoint Source (CWA Section 319) Program, and Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia related activities. 

The purpose of the SCRI program is to address the critical needs of the specialty crop industry by awarding grants to support research and extension that address key challenges of national, regional, and multi-state importance in sustaining all components of food and agriculture, including conventional and organic food production systems. Projects must address at least one of five focus areas: Research in plant breeding, genetics, genomics, and other methods to improve crop characteristics; Efforts to identify and address threats from pests and diseases, including threats to specialty crop pollinators; Efforts to improve production efficiency, handling and processing, productivity, and profitability over the long term (including specialty crop policy and marketing); new innovations and technology, including improved mechanization and technologies that delay or inhibit ripening; and methods to prevent, detect, monitor, control, and respond to potential food safety hazards in the production efficiency, handling and processing of specialty crops.

Research proposals should address questions in one of two broad ecosystems: Arid/semi-arid ecosystems: The Division of Environmental Biology (DEB) anticipates support and management of one (1) new site with a focus on arid or semi-arid ecosystems. The location of the research site for proposals submitted to develop a new arid/semi-arid ecosystem LTER must be within the United States, including its territories and protectorates.  Ocean/coastal ocean ecosystems: The Division of Ocean Sciences (OCE) anticipates support and management of two (2) new sites that focus on ocean or coastal ocean ecosystems; defined as ecological systems from the shoreline outward on continental shelves and including the Laurentian Great Lakes, Congressionally defined as interior oceans. Preference will be given to proposals developing a new ocean/coastal ocean ecosystem LTER site located within the United States, including its territories and protectorates, but other locations are not precluded.

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.

The goal of this FOA is to test whether or not the ages of laboratory animals is an important consideration in experimental outcomes in the study of disease pathology, degenerative condition, response to therapy, intervention or environmental exposure. The majority of studies of human conditions and diseases in laboratory animals are done using young animals. 

Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (Great Lakes Region) is seeking proposals under the Great Lakes B-WET Program. The Great Lakes B-WET Program 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 Great Lakes watershed. 

Program supports two main types of research: (i) innovations in general-purpose methodology related to optimization, stochastic modeling, and decision and game theory; and (ii) research grounded in relevant applications that require the development of novel and customized analytical and computational methodologies. Both types of proposals must be motivated by an application area of interest to the program. Application areas of interest include supply chains and logistics; risk management; healthcare; environment; energy production and distribution; mechanism design and incentives; production planning, maintenance, and quality control; and national security

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA/NMFS) is soliciting competitive applications for the 2016 Pacific Islands Region Marine Education and Training Mini-Grant Program. Projects are being solicited to improve communication, education, and training on marine resource issues throughout the region and increase scientific education for marine-related professions among coastal community residents, including indigenous Pacific islanders, Native Hawaiians and other underrepresented groups in the region.

Through the U.S. Weather Research Program (USWRP), OAR's Office of Weather and Air Quality (OWAQ) is soliciting proposals to conduct air quality research and development activities related to advancing air quality forecasting that will improve NOAA's operational predictions of ozone and PM2.5 in particular over the coming 5 to 10 years.

Proposals should target nanomanufacturing processes with a clear commercial relevance, and should consider addressing key aspects of the nanomanufacturing value chain of nano-scale building-blocks to complex nanostructures to functional devices to integrated systems

The Ag/NRM Project is the main vehicle within the USAID/Ghana Feed the Future strategy to address issues of environment and natural resource management and will focus on increasing rural wealth, nutrition and climate change adaptation