Funding Opportunity: Environmental System Science

November 5, 2024

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program announces its interest in receiving applications for research in Environmental System Science (ESS).

The ESS program aims to advance an integrated, robust, and scale-aware predictive understanding of terrestrial systems and their interdependent microbial, biogeochemical, ecological, hydrological, and physical processes. To support this goal, the program uses a systems approach to develop an integrative framework to elucidate the complex processes and controls on the structure, function, feedbacks, and dynamics of terrestrial systems, spanning from molecular to global scales and extending from the bedrock through the soil, rhizosphere, and vegetation to the atmosphere.

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) will consider applications that focus on improving the understanding and representation of ecosystems and watersheds in ways that advance the sophistication and capabilities of local, regional, and larger scale models.

Research funded through this solicitation will address the following Science Research Areas:

  1. Plant-soil-microbe interactions and their influence on belowground biogeochemical processes.
  2. Synthesis studies using existing data that address testing of ESS-relevant hypotheses and development of transferable insights into knowledge gaps for U.S. southeast coastal systems.
  3. Synthesis studies on contributions and vulnerabilities of Earth system processes in marginal and degraded lands.

All applications are required to clearly address integrative, hypothesis-driven research and describe the existing needs/gaps in state-of-the-art models in a Model-Experiment (ModEx) approach. Applicants should provide details on how the results of the proposed research will be used to improve the predictability and sophistication of integrated watershed systems and/or terrestrial ecosystem models.

Schedule

The principal investigator (PI) and institution representative submitting on behalf of the PI must register for an account in PAMS before a pre-application can be submitted. All PIs and those submitting pre-applications on behalf of PIs are encouraged to establish PAMS accounts as soon as possible to avoid submission delays. Additionally, all applicants are encouraged to read the NOFO carefully for requirements.

  • Deadline for Pre-Applications (required): December 11, 2024; 5:00 pm ET
  • Deadline for Proposals: March 13, 2025; 11:59 pm ET

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