The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) Award Program – is seeking applications proposing to research, develop, design, and demonstrate solutions to real world challenges. The P3 competition highlights the use of scientific principles in creating innovative technology-based projects that achieve the mutual goals of improved quality of life, economic prosperity and environmental protection. The EPA offers the P3 competition in response to the environmental and public health challenges in the United States, including those in small, rural, tribal and/or underserved communities. Please see the P3 Student Design Competition website for more details about this program. Proposed projects must embody the P3 approach, which is that they have the intention and capability to simultaneously improve the quality of people’s lives, provide economic benefits and protect the environment.
EPA recognizes the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting adaptions to in-person learning and laboratory access experienced by colleges and universities. EPA encourages applicants to consider projects that are conducive to conducting research during a pandemic (social distancing, on-line learning, etc.). EPA is monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic and if it is still impacting in-person meetings, a virtual Expo will be planned. PIs will be notified in advance if the National Student Design Expo moves from in-person to virtual.
The P3 Program is intended to address domestic U.S. needs. For this reason, P3 projects should primarily perform their research in the U.S. and the benefits of the research should primarily accrue to the U.S. Applications that do not meet these requirements may not be evaluated as highly during the relevancy review, and therefore may not be recommended for an award.
Deadline: Oct. 27, 2021
Funding Opportunity Numbers (FONs) and Associated Research Areas:
EPA-G2022-P3-Q1 – Air Quality
EPA-G2022-P3-Q2 – Safe and Sustainable Water Resources
EPA-G2022-P3-Q3 – Sustainable and Healthy Communities
EPA-G2022-P3-Q4 – Chemical Safety
Public and private institutions of higher education (limited to degree-granting institutions of higher education) located in the U.S. (includes eligible institutions of higher education located in U.S. territories and possessions) are eligible to apply to be the recipient of a grant to support teams of undergraduate and/or graduate students. Profit-making firms are not eligible to receive assistance agreements from the EPA under this program. See full announcement for more details.
Potential Funding per Award: Up to $25,000 per Phase I grant including direct and indirect costs. Applications for Phase I grants requesting an award of more than $25,000 will not be considered. Applications for Phase I grants must be for one year. Applications with budgets exceeding the total award limits and duration will not be considered. Upon the successful completion of Phase I, grant recipients will have the opportunity to apply for a P3 Phase II grant of up to $100,000 total with a two-year duration, including direct and indirect costs (see Background section for more information). Applications for Phase II grants requesting an award of more than $100,000 or with a duration of more than two years will not be considered.