Deadline: 1-Dec-21
The Environmental Research & Education Foundation (EREF) has announced a request for proposals for the Solid Waste Research Project.
EREF is an IRS 501(c)3 non-profit organization and is one of the largest sources of funding for solid waste research in North America. EREF is not affiliated with any other entity or group and governed by a duly elected Board of Directors.
The Board of Directors is the decision-making body that has responsibility for establishing policies that define program interests and fundamental objectives to be served by the Foundation.
Definition of Solid Waste Used in this RFP
- It should be noted that EREF defines solid waste to include:
- municipal solid waste (e.g. residential, commercial, institutional)
- construction & demolition debris
- certain industrial wastes (e.g. exploration & production waste, coal ash) and
- other wastes typically managed by the solid waste industry or generated by the public not included in the items (e.g. electronic waste, disaster debris, etc).
- Agricultural wastes (that aren’t handled by the waste industry), nuclear waste, and land applied wastewater treatment sludge are generally not included in this definition.
Research Topic Areas
Pre-proposal topics must relate to sustainable solid waste management practices and pertain to the following topic areas:
- Waste minimization
- Recycling
- Waste conversion to energy, biofuels, chemicals or other useful products. This includes, but is not limited to, the following technologies:
- Waste-to-energy
- Anaerobic digestion
- Composting
- Other thermal or biological conversion technologies
- Strategies to promote diversion to higher and better uses (e.g. organics diversion, market analysis, optimized material management, logistics, etc.)
- Landfilling
Funding Information
- Typical project durations are about 2 years. It should be noted that proposed research in excess of $300,000 or longer than 3 years should contain sufficient details that justify the need for the higher than average amount requested and longer project duration.
Eligibility Criteria
- Non-U.S. Institutions: There are no restrictions in regards to geographic location. Any U.S. or non-U.S. institutions are eligible to apply.
- Non-Academic Institutions: Proposals will be accepted from non-academic institutions provided the principal investigators are qualified to conduct the research.
- Who Can Serve as a Principal Investigator: Principal investigators (PI) must be qualified to do the work proposed and should be experts in the subject matter referenced in the pre-proposal/proposal. Typically this would include full-time faculty at academic institutions, post-doctoral employees, and principals or senior personnel at non-academic institutions. Graduate students are not eligible to be principal investigators. However, graduate students are encouraged to consider applying to EREF’s scholarship program (see the EREF website for details).
- Multiple Pre-Proposal Submissions: Pre-Proposal submissions are limited to two (2) submissions per principal investigator during a particular submission period. Beyond this, the PI cannot be listed as a PI or co-PI on other submissions that round, but may be listed as a supporting investigator on other submissions.
- Repeat Submittals: Pre-proposals that did not receive an invitation to submit a full proposal may re-submit a revised version of the original pre-proposal once, and thereafter, approval must be obtained by EREF beforehand. In the event a research topic is very closely related to a prior submittal by the same entity, EREF staff will make any determinations regarding whether or not a submitted proposal constitutes a re-submittal.
For more information, visit https://erefdn.org/research-grants-projects/how-to-apply-for-grant/