Environmental Sustainability — U.S. National Science Foundation funding opportunity
U.S. National Science Foundation · Federal agency

Environmental Sustainability

The Environmental Sustainability program is part of the Environmental Engineering and Sustainability cluster together with 1) theEnvironmental Engineering program and 2) the Nanoscale Interactions program. The goal of th...

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Deadline Fixed Location Alabama Type grant Level Federal Open posted Jun 6, 2025
✦ AI Summary
  • Who can apply: Federal-level applicants (see eligibility for details).
  • Funding amount: total funding pool ~$7,066,000.
  • Issued by: U.S. National Science Foundation.
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The “key facts” mode pulls structured fields directly from the official source posting (amount, deadline, eligibility tags). The AI mode adds a short plain-English narrative on top, generated from the same source. Always verify with the agency before applying.

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Deadline
Fixed
Total pool
$7.1M

About this opportunity

The Environmental Sustainability program is part of the Environmental Engineering and Sustainability cluster together with 1) theEnvironmental Engineering program and 2) the Nanoscale Interactions program. The goal of the Environmental Sustainability program is to promote sustainable engineered systems that support human well-being and that are also compatible with sustaining natural (environmental) systems. These systems provide ecological services vital for human survival. Research efforts supported by the program typically consider long time horizons and may incorporate contributions from the social sciences and ethics. The program supports engineering research that seeks to balance society's need to provide ecological protection and maintain stable economic conditions. There are four principal general research areas that are supported: Industrial ecology: Topics of interest include advancements in modeling such as life cycle assessment, materials flow analysis, input/output economic models, and novel metrics for measuring sustainable systems. Innovations in industrial ecology are encouraged. Green engineering: Research is encouraged to advance the sustainability of manufacturing processes, green buildings, and infrastructure. Many programs in the Engineering Directorate support research in environmentally benign manufacturing or chemical processes. The Environmental Sustainability program supports research that would affect more than one chemical or manufacturing process or that takes a systems or holistic approach to green engineering for infrastructure or green buildings. Improvements in distribution and collection systems that will advance smart growth strategies and ameliorate effects of growth are research areas that are supported by Environmental Sustainability. Innovations in management of storm water, recycling and reuse of drinking water, and other green engineering techniques to support sustainability may also be fruitful areas for research. Ecological engineering: Proposals should focus on the engineering aspects of restoring ecological function to natural systems. Engineering research in the enhancement of natural capital to foster sustainable development is encouraged. Earth systems engineering: Earth systems engineering considers aspects of large-scale engineering research that involve mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, adaptation to climate change, and other global concerns. All proposed research should be driven by engineering principles, and be presented explicitly in an environmental sustainability context. Proposals should include involvement in engineering research of at least one graduate student, as well as undergraduates. Incorporation of aspects of economic sciences is welcomed. NOTE: Water treatment, air pollution (both outdoor and indoor), soil remediation, and solid waste treatment proposals are to besubmitted to the Environmental Engineering program (CBET 1440). Innovative proposals outside the scope of the four core areas mentioned above may be considered. However, prior to submission, it is recommended that the PI contact the program director to avoid the possibility of the proposal being returned without review. For proposals that call for research to be done outside of the United States, an explanation must be presented of the potential benefit of the research for the United States. INFORMATION COMMON TO MOST CBET PROGRAMS Proposals should address the novelty and/orpotentially transformative natureof the proposed work compared to previous work in the field. Also, it is important to address why the proposed work is important in terms of engineering science, as well as to also project the potential impact on society and/or industry of success in the research. The novelty or potentially transformative nature of the research should be included, as a minimum, in the Project Summary of each proposal. The duration of unsolicited proposal awards in CBET is generally up to three years.

Funding agency

U.S. National Science Foundation
Federal agency

Tags

Agriculture & Farming Manufacturing Education & Research Construction & Housing Climate & Environment Transportation & Logistics Science, Tech & Engineering (STEM)
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Who can apply

Eligibility details aren't on file yet — check the agency source link in the Documents tab for the latest rules.

Geographic eligibility

  • Alabama
  • Alaska
  • Arizona
  • Arkansas
  • California
  • Colorado
  • Connecticut
  • Delaware
  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • Hawaii
  • Idaho
  • Illinois
  • Indiana
  • Iowa
  • Kansas
  • Kentucky
  • Louisiana
  • Maine
  • Maryland
  • Massachusetts
  • Michigan
  • Minnesota
  • Mississippi
  • Missouri
  • Montana
  • Nebraska
  • Nevada
  • New Hampshire
  • New Jersey
  • New Mexico
  • New York
  • North Carolina
  • North Dakota
  • Ohio
  • Oklahoma
  • Oregon
  • Pennsylvania
  • Rhode Island
  • South Carolina
  • South Dakota
  • Tennessee
  • Texas
  • Utah
  • Vermont
  • Virginia
  • Washington
  • West Virginia
  • Wisconsin
  • Wyoming
  • District of Columbia

How to apply

We don't have application instructions on file yet — head straight to the official source.

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Source documents

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Canonical NOFO, application packet, and forms
No supplemental documents yet.

Direct downloads (NOFO PDFs, application forms, FAQs) will appear here once our team attaches them. For now, the agency site has the canonical packet.

Citation details

Source systemgrants.gov
Source ID359506
PostedJun 6, 2025

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