Funding Opportunity: DE-FOA-0002581 – DOE BER Urban Integrated Field Laboratories

March 2022

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science (SC) program in Biological and Environmental Research (BER) hereby announces its interest in receiving applications for Integrated Urban Field Laboratories (Urban IFLs). This funding opportunity will provide up to $84 million (over five years) for new observational, modeling, and simulation studies to improve the accuracy of community-scale climate research and inform equitable climate solutions to minimize adverse impacts caused by climate change. Research will focus on three tightly related scientific topics: (1) conducting atmospheric and environmental observations, (2) modeling climate change and its impacts across urban regions, and (3) simulating the climate benefits of deploying climate solutions and technologies in historically underserved communities across the United States.

Urban IFLs require multidisciplinary teams that bring together the skills and talents of investigators from multiple research institutions. Academic and nonprofit research institutions, national laboratories, other federal agencies, and the private sector are all eligible to apply as Urban IFL team members. Applications must be multi-institutional and focus on the development of a single IFL. The lead organization of a proposed Urban IFL team must be an academic institution or a national laboratory. Locally based team members and minority serving institutions (MSI) are expected to have significant roles in each Urban IFL management team, either as a lead organization or a key team member.

Funding is to be awarded competitively, on the basis of peer review, and is expected to be in the form of five-year awards.  Multiple IFLs may be selected in response to this FOA. Considered together, each of the selected IFLs will represent different aspects of understanding urban systems, potentially including diverse demographic characteristics; differing climate-induced pressures on people and infrastructures; and unique geographic settings (e.g., coastal, arid lands, mountains, plains, or Great Lakes).

  • Full AnnouncementDE-FOA-0002581
  • Submission Deadline for Pre-Applications (required): April 19, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time
  • Pre-Application Response Date: April 26, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time
  • Submission Deadline for Applications: June 16, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time
  • Informational Webinar: Wednesday, March 30, at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Register for the webinar here.