The DOE Office of Science (SC) program in Biological and Environmental Research (BER) hereby announces its interest in receiving applications for a Research Development and Partnership Pilot (RDPP) within BER’s Earth and Environmental Systems Sciences Division (EESSD). BER has a goal to broaden and diversify institutional representation in the EESSD portfolio with institutions that have limited familiarity and/or engagement with EESSD supported efforts. BER recognizes that there are many academic scientists at institutions not currently supported by BER who have limited familiarity with EESSD programs and research support mechanisms; and BER further recognizes that this lack of familiarity can be a significant barrier to participation in BER research activities, application to BER EESSD funding opportunities, and use of BER scientific user facilities. This barrier is exacerbated by limited opportunities to gain such familiarity. To help provide technical assistance to build capacity and achieve the goal of broadening institutional participation, this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) will provide seed funding for institutions to: 1) develop new partnerships with other academic institutions and/or national laboratories to enable future participation in EESSDrelevant research; 2) facilitate participation in planned EESSD research programmatic and user facility outreach and training activities; and 3) foster the development of climate and environmental science research and training capacity at under-represented institutions.

Applicant institutions are limited to no more than two applications. Interested applicants from within Duke should contact dukeiln@duke.edu as early as possible.

Deadline: April 20, 2022