Funding Opportunities
Government Funding Opportunities
Exploratory Grants for Climate Change and Health Research Center Development (P20 Clinical Trial Optional)
Department of Health and Human Services – National Institutes of Health
Deadline: November 7th, 2023
The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to solicit P20 planning grant applications for Climate Change and Health Research Centers (CCHRCs). This program will support the development of a transdisciplinary research environment to sustain a program of fundamental and applied research to examine the impacts of climate change on health and to develop action-oriented solutions to protect the health of individuals, communities, and nations from the hazards posed by climate change. This opportunity will allow development of new research teams collaborating with communities and other partners to develop projects that generate data that will build or expand research capacity across a range of thematic scientific areas in support of the four core tenets of the NIHs Initiative in climate heath research: health effects research, health equity, intervention research, and training and capacity building (https://www.nih.gov/sites/default/files/research-training/initiatives/climate-change/nih-climate-change-framework.pdf).
FY 2023 – FY 2024 Pollution Prevention Grants: Environmental Justice Through Safer and More Sustainable Products
Environmental Protection Agency
Deadline: June 20th, 2023
The goal of this grant opportunity is to address environmental justice by providing P2 technical assistance to businesses (e.g., information, training, expert advice) to improve human health and the environment in disadvantaged communities by increasing the supply, demand and use of safer and more sustainable products, such as those that are certified by EPA’s Safer Choice Program, or those that conform to EPA’s Recommendations for Specifications, Standards and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing (EPA Recommendations). Greater availability and use of safer and sustainable products can decrease harmful chemical exposures and impacts on human health and the environment in disadvantaged communities. Therefore, EPA views these grants as a component of the Biden Administration Justice40 Initiative, which is designed to assure that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities.
To allow a greater number of disadvantaged communities to benefit from the results and lessons learned from projects funded by these grants, EPA is requiring recipients to develop P2 case studies on approaches to make safer and sustainable products more available in disadvantaged communities where the approaches are new, not widely known or adopted, or where the recipient believes detailed information on the project could support more widespread project replication. Recipients must develop at least one case study during the grant period. Case studies submitted by recipients will be used to build and share a body of knowledge about P2 approaches to make safer and sustainable products more available in disadvantaged communities that could be implemented by other enterprises. In addition to case studies, EPA also encourages other means to document and widely share projects and lessons learned through the technical assistance provided through these grants (e.g., outreach, training, and videos). Guidance for developing these case studies can be found in Appendix B.
Future Manufacturing
National Science Foundation
Deadline: April 19th, 2023
The goal of Future Manufacturing is to support fundamental research and education of a future workforce to overcome scientific, technological, educational, economic, and social barriers in order to catalyze new manufacturing capabilities that do not exist today. Future Manufacturing imagines manufacturing decades into the future. It supports research and education that will enhance U.S. leadership in manufacturing by providing new capabilities for established companies and entrepreneurs, by improving our health, quality of life, and national security, by expanding job opportunities to a diverse STEM workforce, and by reducing the impact of manufacturing on the environment. At the same time, Future Manufacturing enables new manufacturing that will address urgent social challenges arising from climate change, global pandemics and health disparities, social and economic divides, infrastructure deficits of marginalized populations and communities, and environmental sustainability.
Future Manufacturing will require major advances in technologies for the sustainable synthesis and production of new materials, chemicals, quantum and semiconductor devices and integrated systems, and components and systems of assured quality with high yield and at reasonable cost. It will require advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, new cyber infrastructure, new approaches for mathematical and computational modeling, new dynamics and control methodologies, new ways to integrate systems biology, synthetic biology and bioprocessing, and new ways to influence the economy, workforce, human behavior, and society.
Smart and Connected Communities
National Science Foundation
Deadline: Ongoing
Communities in the United States (US) and around the world are entering a new era of transformation in which residents and their surrounding environments are increasingly connected through rapidly-changing intelligent technologies. This transformation offers great promise for improved wellbeing and prosperity but poses significant challenges at the complex intersection of technology and society. The goal of the NSF Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC) program solicitation is to accelerate the creation of the scientific and engineering foundations that will enable smart and connected communities to bring about new levels of economic opportunity and growth, safety and security, health and wellness, accessibility and inclusivity, and overall quality of life.
For the purposes of this solicitation, communities are defined as having geographically-delineated boundaries—such as towns, cities, counties, neighborhoods, community districts, rural areas, and tribal regions—consisting of various populations, with the structure and ability to engage in meaningful ways with proposed research activities. A 'smart and connected community' is, in turn, defined as a community that synergistically integrates intelligent technologies with the natural and built environments, including infrastructure, to improve the social, economic, and environmental well-being of those who live, work, learn, or travel within it.
The S&CC program encourages researchers to work with community stakeholders to identify and define challenges they are facing, enabling those challenges to motivate use-inspired research questions. For this solicitation, community stakeholders may include some or all of the following: residents, neighborhood or community groups, nonprofit or philanthropic organizations, businesses, as well as municipal organizations such as libraries, museums, educational institutions, public works departments, and health and social services agencies. The S&CC program supports integrative research that addresses fundamental technological and social science dimensions of smart and connected communities and pilots solutions together with communities. Importantly, this program is interested in projects that consider the sustainability of the research outcomes beyond the life of the project, including the scalability and transferability of the proposed solutions.
Dear Colleague Letter: Critical Aspects of Sustainability (CAS): Innovative Solutions to Sustainable Chemistry (CAS-SC)
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation welcomes proposals (to existing programs in participating NSF divisions) in sustainable chemistry. NSF defines sustainable chemistry as efforts to improve the efficiency with which resources are used to meet human needs for chemical products and materials while reducing use of hazardous substances and the generation of waste. Participating divisions and programs with the NSF include the Divisions of Chemistry (CHE), Materials Research (DMR), Mathematical Sciences (DMS), and Physics (PHY) in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS); Divisions of Chemical Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET) and Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) in the Directorate for Engineering (ENG); and the Partnerships for Innovation program within the Division of Translational Impacts (TI) in the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP). Proposals in response to this DCL should be submitted to existing programs in the participating NSF divisions, adhering to the respective submission deadlines and requirements. After any solicitation or PAPPG specific requirements, titles should include the prefix "CAS-SC: ". CAS-SC proposals are expected to contain a compelling, detailed, and quantitatively-supported description of how the proposed research would address sustainable chemistry.
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Communications, Circuits, and Sensing-Systems
National Science Foundation
Deadline: Ongoing
The Communications, Circuits, and Sensing-Systems (CCSS) Program supports innovative research in circuit and system hardware and signal processing techniques. CCSS also supports system and network architectures for communications and sensing to enable the next-generation cyber-physical systems (CPS) that leverage computation, communication, and sensing integrated with physical domains. CCSS invests in micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS), physical, chemical, and biological sensing systems, neurotechnologies, and communication & sensing circuits and systems. The goal is to create new complex and hybrid systems ranging from nano- to macro-scale with innovative engineering principles and solutions for a variety of applications including but not limited to healthcare, medicine, environmental and biological monitoring, communications, disaster mitigation, homeland security, intelligent transportation, manufacturing, energy, and smart buildings. CCSS encourages research proposals based on emerging technologies and applications for communications and sensing such as high-speed communications of terabits per second and beyond, sensing and imaging covering microwave to terahertz frequencies, personalized health monitoring and assistance, secured wireless connectivity and sensing for the Internet of Things, and dynamic-data-enabled autonomous systems through real-time sensing and learning.
Integrative Computational Tools for Systems Biology Research
Department of Energy- Office of Science
Deadline: March 28th, 2023
The BER program supports basic research to understand the fundamental nature of biological processes relevant to DOE energy and environmental mission goals. Within BER, the GSP supports systems biology research on microbial, plant, plant-microbe interactions, and environmental microbial communities to address DOE’s mission in sustainable bioenergy development. Understanding and harnessing the metabolic and regulatory networks of plants and microbes will enable their design and re-engineering for improved energy resilience and sustainability, including advanced biofuels and bio products.
The widespread adoption of high-throughput, multi-omic techniques has revolutionized biological research, enabling a broader view and deeper understanding of cellular processes and the biological systems they drive. In pursuit of predictive modeling and genome-scale engineering of complex biological systems important for bioenergy, the research supported by the GSP generates vast amounts of complex omic’ and other data from a wide range of analytical technologies and experimental approaches. These data span multiple spatio-temporal scales, reflecting the organizational complexities of biological systems, and present significant computational challenges for identifying causal variants that influence phenotype. Accurate modeling of the underlying systems biology depends on surmounting those challenges.
Increasing Utilization and Reliability of Electric Infrastructure with Grid-enhancing technologies (GETs)
Department of Energy – National Energy Technology Laboratory
Deadline: May 9th, 2023
Increasing Utilization and Reliability of Electric Infrastructure with Grid Enhancing Technologies. This Funding Opportunity Announcement is designed to seek applicants to conduct Research, Development, and Demonstration RD and D for innovative approaches that demonstrate real world benefits and usage of Grid Enhancing Technologies through at scale field demonstration.
RFI: DE-FOA-0003027 on Achieving Circularity of the Domestic Battery Supply Chain
Department of Energy- Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy
Deadline: April 3rd, 2023
The purpose of this RFI is to solicit input for a potential future ARPA-E research program focused on achieving a circular and domestic battery supply chain for various types of electric vehicles including scooters, cars, buses, trucks, trains, ships, and aircrafts. A circular battery supply chain keeps materials and products in circulation at their highest level of performance for as long possible. It is based on a system-level approach that minimize material use, waste, and emissions through the selection of regenerative materials and sustainable designs and manufacturing processes of parts and products. From an economic standpoint, it aims to manage supply chain risks and recover lost manufacturing value.
The potential program is not concerned with supplies of critical minerals or with existing battery recycling processes. Instead, it focuses on alternative strategies that can be implemented to achieve circularity including servicing, upgrading, refurbishing, and remanufacturing of batteries. The primary goals are (1) to identify materials (e.g., electrode materials, electrolytes, adhesives) amenable to in-cell regeneration to prolong the life of batteries, (2) to develop sustainable design and manufacturing of battery cells, modules, and packs that facilitate serviceability, disassembly, refurbishing, and recovery of materials and/or components at the end of life, and (3) to minimize waste, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions during the battery lifecycle. Such transformation should be achieved without affecting the performance and safety of the battery packs. ARPA-E is seeking information at this time regarding transformative and implementable technologies that can:
(a) Extend the life of battery materials, cells, modules, and/or pack through regeneration, servicing or maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, and remanufacturing. Examples include selection of electrode materials that can be regenerated through thermomechanical, chemical, and/or electrochemical treatments,
(b) Develop designs and manufacturing processes for cells, modules and packs that can be easily disassembled to enable servicing, reuse, refurbishing, or remanufacturing, and
(c) Minimize the overall amount of waste generated, energy consumed, and greenhouse gas emitted throughout the battery manufacturing, servicing, and recycling processes. Examples include designs that avoid permanent bonding or any fabrication that requires destructive disassembly (e.g., shredding).
Sensing Exports of Anthropogenic Carbon during Ocean Observation (SEA CO2)
Department of Energy, Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy
Deadline: April 4th, 2023
Marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) will be an essential component of a future negative emissions industry, which alongside emissions reduction is necessary to restrict climate warming to less than 2°C and avoid global, irreversible, and catastrophic changes caused by this temperature rise. This program seeks to accelerate the development of the mCDR industry through the development of scalable Measurement, Reporting and Validation (MRV) technologies. MRV must be of sufficient quality to quantify carbon drawdown magnitudes, the degree of permanence, and bound the uncertainties associated with these parameters so that carbon markets can ascertain credit quality and financial institutions can make informed decisions regarding investment risk. To achieve these goals, a paradigm shift in chemical oceanographic data collection is required, moving from a single-point collection paradigm towards a goal of persistent sensing of parameters across large areas and/or volumes.
Buildings Energy Efficiency Frontiers & Innovation Technologies (BENEFIT)
Department of Energy
Deadline: April 5th, 2023
The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is issuing, on behalf of the Building Technologies Office (BTO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) titled “Buildings Energy Efficiency Frontiers & Innovation Technologies (BENEFIT) – 2022/2023”. The 2022/2023 BENEFIT FOA will invest up to $15.35M -$45.2M across 5 topic areas to allow all interested parties to research and develop high-impact, cost-effective technologies and practices that will reduce carbon emissions, improve flexibility and resilience, as well as lower energy costs.
Topic 1: Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning and Water Heating: Technologies with improved materials, components, equipment design and engineering, lower cost manufacturing processes, and easier installation.
Topic 2: Thermal Energy Storage (TES): Development and validation of next generation plug-and-play TES products with improved cost and performance and ease of installation to accelerate adoption of TES in HVAC applications.
Topic 3: Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS): Development, validation, and demonstration of product innovations that reduce the cost of BESS integration, improve the coordination between distributed BESS and the electrical grid, as well as help meet building decarbonization targets.
Topic 4: Plug Loads/Lighting: Integration of plug load controls with connected lighting systems in commercial buildings with minimal cost and complexity to support building electrification.
Topic 5: Opaque Building Envelope: Development, validation, and demonstration of high-impact, affordable. opaque building envelope retrofit and diagnostic technologies.
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act promises a number of relevant funding opportunities in the coming years. The attached list outlines the federal programs established in or amended by the IIJA that will be soliciting funded partnerships, and researchers with an interest in one or more of these highlighted areas may wish to begin preparing proposal materials. For more information on any of these programs or federal opportunities, please contact the Office of Government Relations.
Foundation Funding Opportunities
Please contact the Office of Foundation Relations. for additional information about these opportunities. Our team is also available to advise and assist with proposal development.
PLEASE NOTE: Many foundations are extending application deadlines due to the COVID-19 situation. Please check the foundation’s website or email foundationrelations@northwestern.edu for more information.
Corporate Funding Opportunities
Collaboration Engagement facilitates any connections between Northwestern faculty, students, and staff seeking support from corporations for the purposes of research, scholarship, and strategic engagement. Contact Jim Bray, Director of Corporate Engagement, for more information.
Climate Impact Awards - Unlocking Urgent Climate Action by Making the Health Effects of Climate Change Visible
Wellcome Trust
Deadline: April 13th, 2023
OFR Contact: Catherine Cotter
The aim of this RFP is to make the impacts of climate change visible across a wide range of physical and mental health outcomes in order to increase the profile of the evidence, advance impactful narratives on the effects of climate change on health, and use these to drive urgent policy and practice change at scale. This will include generating and synthesizing evidence (including across multiple sites/countries) on under-researched but significant health issues arising from climate impacts that fill a policy and practice-relevant evidence gap and/or present localizing knowledge to specific contexts where evidence is missing.
This program will fund transdisciplinary teams (e.g., researchers, policymakers, practitioners, community stakeholders, communications, and public engagement experts) with capacity to use evidence to drive climate action. Research that serves the expressed needs of at-risk populations and communities with high exposure and vulnerabilities to the health impacts of climate change will be prioritized.
Solid Waste Management Research Grants
Environmental Research & Education Foundation
Deadline: May 1st, 2023 (Pre-proposal)
OFR Contact: Catherine Cotter
This program supports research projects related to sustainable solid waste management practices in the areas of climate change impacts; quantifying circularity of materials; quantifying the environmental burden of plastic wastes; environmental justice; waste minimization; recycling; waste conversion to energy, biofuels, chemicals, or other useful products; strategies to promote diversion to higher and better uses; and landfilling. Solid waste is defined as municipal solid waste, construction and demolition debris, certain industrial wastes (e.g., exploration and production waste and coal ash), and other wastes typically managed by the solid waste industry or generated by the public not included in the aforementioned items (e.g., electronic waste and disaster debris).
CONTACT AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Fruma Yehiely, Associate Vice President for Research