Environmental Engineering

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The Environmental Engineering program supports fundamental research and educational activities across the broad field of environmental engineering. The goal of this program is to encourage transformative research which applies scientific and engineering principles to minimize or avoid solid, liquid, and gaseous discharges resulting from human activity into land, air, and inland and coastal waters, while promoting resource and energy conservation and recovery. The program fosters cutting-edge scientific research for identifying, evaluating, and monitoring the waste assimilative capacity of the natural environment and for removing or reducing contaminants from polluted air, water, and soils. Major areas of interest and activity in the program include:Environmental engineering implications of energy and resource consumption - Focus on conversion of wastes into value-added materials and energy, reduction of energy/water demand for environmental technologies, and the impact of energy and transportation processes on the environment.Availability of high quality water supplies - Develop innovative biological, chemical and physical treatment processes to meet the growing demand for water; investigate processes that remove and degrade traditional aqueous contaminants, remediate contaminated soil and groundwater, and convert wastewaters into water suitable for reuse; investigate environmental engineering aspects of urban watersheds, reservoirs, estuaries, and storm water management; investigate biogeochemical and transport processes driving water quality in the aquatic and subsurface environment.Fate and transport of contaminants of emerging concern - Investigate the fate, transport and remediation of potentially harmful contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products, pesticides and insecticides, endocrine-disrupting compounds, and fire retardants and their degradates. (Please note that research concerning the environmental health and safety of nanomaterials should be submitted to the Environmental Health and Safety of Nanotechnology program.) The duration of unsolicited awards is generally one to three years. The average annual award size for the program is $110,000. It is recommended that a Principal Investigator requesting a substantially higher amount than this consult with the Program Director to avoid the possibility of the proposal being returned without review.Additional Program Information - 1440: (e.g., Areas of Research, Research Highlights, Conferences and Workshops, Program Director Information, etc.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------INFORMATION COMMON TO MOST CBET PROGRAMSProposals should address the novelty and/or potentially transformative nature http://www.nsf.gov/about/transformative_research/faq.jsp of the concept being proposed, 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. Proposals submitted to this program are subject to the scope of the program's description and the availability of funds. Decisions about particular proposals are often very difficult to make and factors other than reviewer comments and ratings enter into the decision. Comments by a reviewer must sometimes be considered in the context of other reviews by the same person. The Program Director often has additional information not available to reviewers (such as project reports). Maintaining appropriate balance among subfields, the availability of other funding, the total amount of funds available to the program, and general Foundation policies and priorities are also important decision factors. Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program proposals are strongly encouraged. Award duration is five years. The submission deadline for Engineering CAREER proposals is in July every year. Please see the following URL for more information: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503214Proposals for Conferences, Workshops, and Supplements: Proposals involving these activities should ideally be submitted during the regular annual proposal window. PIs are strongly encouraged to discuss their requests with the Program Director before submission of the proposal.Grants for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) and EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) are also considered when appropriate. Please note that proposals of these types must be discussed with the Program Director before submission. Further details are available in the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) download. Unsolicited proposals received outside of the Announced Proposal Window dates will be returned without review..

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