Funding Opportunity: Resilience Centers
October 30, 2024
The DOE SC program in Biological and Environmental Research (BER) hereby announces its interest in applications from the scientific community for Resilience Centers (RCs) that will improve the availability and utility of BER research, data, models, and capabilities to address the resiliency of natural and human systems to meteorological and/or environmental pressures, including extreme events, particularly by underrepresented or vulnerable communities. BER’s mission is to support transformative science and scientific user facilities to achieve a predictive understanding of complex biological, Earth, and environmental systems for energy and infrastructure security, independence, and prosperity. BER research further advances the fundamental understanding of dynamic, physical, and biogeochemical processes required to systematically develop Earth system models that integrate across the atmosphere, land masses, oceans, sea ice, subsurface, and human systems. These science-based predictive tools and methods are critically needed to inform policies and plans for strengthening the security and resilience of critical infrastructure and natural resources.
First launched as a program in FY 2023 and continuing into FY 2024, Resilience Centers continue DOE earth and environmental system sciences and research capacity by supporting non-R1 Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and non-R1 Emerging Research Institutions (ERIs) to address the needs for regional resilience; including new science to describe how longer term trends of meteorological or hydrological extremes affect impacts and recovery of natural, socioeconomic, and/or built systems. The Resilience Centers also aim to foster capacity at regional and local scales by connecting with affected communities and stakeholders to translate basic research into actionable science to enhance and strengthen resilience, as well as to identify research priorities for future DOE investments. Resilience Centers formed a nucleus for building and empowering a future pool of local talent and expertise, including young scientists, engineers, and technicians, to address local resilience challenges and inform solutions. They also leverage ongoing DOE earth and environmental system sciences and capabilities that exist at currently supported DOE national laboratories and universities and build two-way engagement between DOE funded research and community stakeholders for improved resilience responses.
The resilience centers to be supported under this NOFO will focus on the science of resilience in response to meteorological and/or environmental pressures, including extreme events, that impact natural and/or human systems. In this context, pressures and extremes may occur on time scales of days to multiple years. Discrete, compounding, and/or recurring extremes are considered important to the scope of Resilience Center research as part of this NOFO.
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 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) carefully for requirements.
- Register for Informational Webinar: November 6, 2024; 1:00 to 2:00 pm ET
- Deadline for Pre-Applications (required): December 12, 2024; 5:00 pm ET
- Deadline for Applications: February 20, 2025; 11:59 pm ET
More Information
- Notice of Funding Opportunity: DE-FOA-0003464 – Resilience Centers
- All DOE Office of Science Funding Announcements