OPPORTUNITIES
The Illinois Energy Scholars maintain an email list for sharing opportunities for research funding, industry partnerships, student funding, and education and outreach activities. If you are a faculty-level researcher who would like to be counted among the Illinois Energy Scholars and receive these updates, please email us at sustainability@illinois.edu with the subject line, “Add an Energy Scholar.”
Grant and Other Opportunities for Illinois Scholars ...
Current and recent calls for proposals from major funding agencies, as well as speaking opportunities and other announcements for Illinois faculty-level scholars.
May 2021: DOE Opportunities, Near-Term and Long-Term
A message from iSEE Acting Associate Director for Research Jeremy Guest:
Attached is a summary of the Biden Administration's anticipated fiscal year 2022 budget request. This email also includes near-term opportunities are at the top of this email and long-term opportunities are near the bottom. If researchers are interested and pursuing any of these opportunities and iSEE can support this endeavor (including helping bring an interdisciplinary team together, business office support, etc.), please let me know as soon as possible. Note that the "long-term opportunities" may require significant planning, and starting early could put teams in a better position to be successful. View a pdf of these opportunities >>>
NEAR-term funding opportunities
Agency/Foundation: NREL, Department of Energy
RFP/FOA topic: Cadmium Telluride Photovoltaics Accelerator Consortium Solicitation
Informational Webinar: May 21, 2021
Proposal Deadline (estimated*): To be determined (TBD), full solicitation released in May 2021
Funding (total): $20,000,000 (anticipated)
Duration: TBD
FOA Link: https://www.nrel.gov/pv/cadmium-telluride-photovoltaics-accelerator-consortium-solicitation.html
Consortium Goals: Support the planning and operations of a technology development consortium to enhance U.S. technology leadership and competitiveness in CdTe PV. The CdTe PV Accelerator solicitation will formalize the leadership to identify the technology development priorities of a consortium consisting of leading companies and research institutes that are able to impact the entire domestic CdTe supply chain.
Agency/Foundation: Department of Energy
RFP/FOA topic: Quantum Horizons: QIS Research and Innovation for Nuclear Science
Letter of Intent: May 21, 2021 (TOMORROW) - LOIs are encouraged but NOT required
Proposal Deadline (estimated*): June 18, 2021
Funding (total): Depends on "opportunity" and funding use - $10K for PI exchange; $25K workshops; $50K conferences; $150K grad student; $200K postdoc; up to $1,100,000 per award
Duration: 1-3 years (depending on topic)
Brief summary: The DOE SC program in Nuclear Physics (NP) hereby announces its interest in receiving interdisciplinary applications for open scientific research on Quantum Computing (QC) and Quantum Information Science and Technology (QIST) with a clear line of sight to enable discoveries to explore and understand all forms of nuclear matter, including some that no longer exist. From the hot dense soup of quarks and gluons in the first microseconds after the Big Bang, through the formation of protons and neutrons beginning the evolution of the chemical elements, to the awesome power of supernovae, the physics of nuclei is fundamental to our understanding of the universe.
Agency/Foundation: ARPA-E
RFP/FOA topic: DE-FOA-0002530: OPTIMIZING NUCLEAR WASTE AND ADVANCED REACTOR DISPOSAL SYSTEMS (ONWARDS)
Concept Paper Deadline (estimated*): July 9, 2021
Full Application Deadline (estimated*): TBD
Funding (total): $250,000 to $10,000,000
Duration: 3 years
Brief summary: The program goal of ONWARDS is to support the development of technologies that address significant challenges to closing the back-end (see Figure 1) of advanced reactor (AR) nuclear fuel cycles3. Specifically, projects funded under the ONWARDS Program will develop and demonstrate sustainable technologies that will significantly improve the disposal impact (Section I.C below) of used nuclear fuel (UNF)4 and other waste streams stemming from the implementation of AR fuel cycles by developing innovative and cost-effective approaches in reprocessing5, material accountancy, and waste forms. ONWARDS metrics include an order-of-magnitude reduction in AR waste volume generation or repository footprint compared to light-water nuclear reactors (LWR)6, better than 1% fissile-mass accountancy in reprocessing streams, development of high-performance AR waste forms for a variety of potential deep-geological repositories (DGR) and disposal concepts, and costs in the range of $1/megawatt-hour (MWh). This FOA is focused on supporting the development of viable technologies to achieve these metrics.
Agency/Foundation: Department of Energy
Prize/opportunity: L-Prize for Innovative LED Lighting
First Concept Deadline (estimated*): Nov. 19, 2021
Funding (total): $20,000 prize
Duration: 1-3 years (depending on topic)
LONG-term funding opportunities
Anticipated Funding Source: Department of Energy
Anticipated topic: Cybersecurity for Energy Delivery Systems
Anticipated funding: Up to $20,000,000 (anticipated)
Anticipated announcement timeline: May 2021
Anticipated Funding Source: ARPA-E
Anticipated topic: Macroalgae conversion for biofuels and bioproducts
Anticipated funding: Unknown
Anticipated announcement timeline: Summer/Fall 2021
Anticipated Funding Source: ARPA-E
Anticipated topic: Carbon negative building materials
Anticipated funding: Unknown
Anticipated announcement timeline: Summer/Fall 2021
Anticipated Funding Source: Department of Energy
Anticipated topic: Energy Frontier Research Centers
Anticipated funding: Unknown
Anticipated announcement timeline: Fall/Winter 2021
*Deadlines are included in this summary to help folks get a sense for the timeline for the call for proposals. If you are interested in submitting to this call for proposals, please review the RFP/FOA for yourself to identify deadlines, submittal requirements, etc.
April 2021: NSF Geospace Sciences
A message from iSEE Acting Associate Director for Research Jeremy Guest:
Please view the request proposals (RFP) for the National Science Foundation. If researchers are interested and pursuing this opportunity and iSEE can support this endeavor (including helping bring an interdisciplinary team together, business office support, etc.), please let me know as soon as possible.
Agency/Foundation: National Science Foundation
RFP/FOA topic: Grand Challenges in Integrative Geospace Sciences: Advancing National Space Weather Expertise and Research toward Societal Resilience (ANSWERS)
Full Proposal Deadline (estimated*): Aug. 23, 2021
Funding (total): $900,000 to $2,500,000
Duration: 3-4 years
Program Synopsis: The Advancing National Space Weather Expertise and Research toward Societal resilience (ANSWERS) solicitation has the goal to bring together collaborative teams of solar and geospace observers, theorists, modelers, experimenters, educators and computational experts to address some of the most challenging problems in solar and space physics and space weather. The purview of this new holistic solicitation goes beyond the scope of each of the long-standing programs in the Geospace Section (GS) of the NSF Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Science (AGS): Aeronomy (AER), Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR), Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM), Magnetospheric Physics (MAG), Solar Terrestrial Research (STR), and Solar, Heliospheric, and INterplanetary Environment (SHINE). ANSWERS enables deep and transformative understanding of the dynamic, integrated Sun-Earth system and the solar and terrestrial drivers of space weather and their effects “from Sun to mud.” In combination with forward-looking educational endeavors, ANSWERS also aims to advance the nation’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) expertise and build societal resilience against space weather hazards.
*Deadlines are included in this summary to help folks get a sense for the timeline for the call for proposals. If you are interested in submitting to this call for proposals, please review the RFP/FOA for yourself to identify deadlines, submittal requirements, etc.
April 2021: USGS/Department of the Interior
A message from iSEE Acting Associate Director for Research Jeremy Guest:
Please find an attached request for proposals (RFP) for the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Department of the Interior
RFP/FOA topic: National Climate Adaptation Science Center Program (NCASC) — Midwest Region
Full Proposal Deadline (estimated*): June 14, 2021
Funding (total): $4.5 million ($900,000 per year)
Duration: 5 years
Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASCs): https://www.usgs.gov/ecosystems/climate-adaptation-science-centers
Funding Opportunity Description: This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) seeks to identify applicant organizations that propose to host and, as applicable, serve as consortium partners for a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Climate Adaptation Science Center (CASC) in the Midwest that includes the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin, and to determine if their proposed science, partnership, and program support activities and strategies are appropriate. Once selected, the recipient will be established as Host Institution. As a Host, an institution will be the sole entity eligible to receive funding to conduct follow-on research/science projects anticipated as a part of this NOFO. Host Institutions may engage with other institutions, including by subaward, as part of these projects.
*Deadlines are included in this summary to help folks get a sense for the timeline for the call for proposals. If you are interested in submitting to this call for proposals, please review the RFP/FOA for yourself to identify deadlines, submittal requirements, etc.
March 2021: NOAA Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Program (CAMP)
A message from iSEE Acting Associate Director for Research Jeremy Guest:
Please find an attached request for proposals (RFP) for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce
RFP/FOA topic: A Cooperative Agreement for Climate Adaptation and Mitigation
Full Proposal Deadline (estimated*): May 24, 2021
Funding (total): $50 million ($10M per year)
Duration: 5 years
Funding Opportunity Description: The NOAA Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Program (CAMP) supports research, programs, projects and other activities related to NOAA’s mission, primarily through collaborations among scientists and professionals in areas of mutual interest across the full spectrum of NOAA climate sciences. This cooperative agreement will focus on the following four priority areas: 1) Improved scientific understanding of the changing climate system and its impacts; 2) Scientific assessments of current and future states of the climate system that identify potential impacts and inform science, service, and stewardship decisions; 3) Mitigation and adaptation efforts supported by sustained, reliable, and timely climate services; 4) A climate-literate public that understands its vulnerabilities to a changing climate and makes informed decisions.
*Deadlines are included in this summary to help folks get a sense for the timeline for the call for proposals. If you are interested in submitting to this call for proposals, please review the RFP/FOA for yourself to identify deadlines, submittal requirements, etc.
May 2020: International Joint Commission — Great Lakes Board
Please be advised that the IJC Great Lakes Boards are tentatively planning to post solicitations for projects listed below on a U.S. GSA schedule by July. The most likely GSA schedule will be the Environmental Services Schedule https://gsa.federalschedules.com/industries/gsa-environmental-pss-899/
To be able to respond to these IJC RFPs, potential vendors must be registered as a vendor on the GSA schedule. Registration is free, but the process may take 30-180 days.
If you are interested in submitting a proposal(s) for the projects, please register using this link:
https://www.gsa.gov/buying-selling/purchasing-programs/gsa-schedules/selling-to-the-government
Please also see email below for additional information about the registration.
Tentative Great Lakes Board projects:
- Envisioning Our Great Lakes Future: Scenarios, Opportunities, Threats and Responsive Governance
- Third Binational Great Lakes Basin Poll
- Operationalizing an Early Warning System for the Great Lakes
- Synthesis of IJC Nutrients-related Projects
- Development of Surface and Ground Water Integration Model and Management Framework
Thank you for your support of the IJC’s work in the protection of the Great Lakes!
Lizhu Wang, Ph.D.
Environmental Science Advisor/Secretariat of SAB-RCC
International Joint Commission
Great Lakes Regional Office
100 Ouellette Ave, Windsor, ON N9A 6T3
Tel: 519-562-4980
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