Tag Archives: Centers for Sustainable Molecular Design

US Environmental Protection Agency funding opportunities

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced a couple of funding opportunities for some new centers. The first one I’m going to mention is the call for Centers for Material Life Cycle Safety. From the Jan. 3, 2012 news item on Nanowerk,

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications for an interdisciplinary center focused on the application of a life cycle perspective towards the development of materials (Centers for Material Life Cycle Safety). Funding Opportunity Number: EPA-G2012-STAR-B1. Solicitation Closing Date: April 25, 2012, 11:59:59 pm Eastern Time. [emphasis mine]

Note: The term “materials” broadly refers to any and all types of chemicals, including individual chemicals, compounds, mixtures of compounds, or products. Such examples of materials include a discreet molecule, a polymer, a nanomaterial or a biochemical. [emphasis mine]

The aim of the center will be to develop methodologies and practices for materials design which applies a holistic perspective. This holistic approach to design, which considers all the stages of a material’s life cycle, provides an opportunity to produce materials which minimize, and preferably eliminate, any associated potential environmental and human health impacts that may occur during the life cycle.

You can read more about funding opportunity EPA-G2012-STAR-B1  here where, amongst other things, you’ll find out that requests for amounts exceeding $5M will not be considered. There’s a total of $10M to be awarded for the centers and the EPA anticipates awarding two grants.

The second funding opportunity announced by the US EPA is for  Centers for Sustainable Molecular Design. From the Jan. 3, 2012 news item on Nanowerk,

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications for an interdisciplinary center focusing on the sustainable molecular design of chemicals (Centers for Sustainable Molecular Design). Funding Opportunity Number: EPA-G2012-STAR-C1. Solicitation Closing Date: April 25, 2012, 11:59:59 pm Eastern Time. [emphasis mine]

Note: The term “chemicals” broadly refers to any and all types of materials, including individual chemicals, compounds or mixtures of compounds, endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), and nanomaterials. [emphasis mine]

The aim of the center will be to develop a set of parameters and strategies that will establish design criteria regarding the properties of chemicals that will lead to the development of intrinsically less hazardous substances when compared to those currently used in society. These newly acquired criteria and design principles will direct researchers towards the generation of novel chemicals that will minimize, and preferably eliminate, associated potential environmental and human health impacts that may occur during the life cycle of that chemical. The advent of these novel chemicals and their respective discovery of correlations between a chemical’s inherent properties and their adverse impacts require the development of improved methods for the design of next generation chemicals.

You can read more about funding opportunity EPA-G2012-STAR-C1 here. Just like the Centers for Material Life Cycle Safety awards, you’ll find that requests for Centers for Sustainable Molecular Design in amounts exceeding $5M will not be considered. There’s a total of $10M to be awarded for the centers and the EPA anticipates awarding two grants.

I find it quite interesting that the study of nanomaterial life cycles in various forms is being classified as a subset of a larger topic, e.g. Material Life Cycle Safety and Sustainable Molecular Design.