Funding Guide: Water Resources

Last updated: 5-21-2013

(alphabetical by program name)

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Program Name: Water Sustainability and Climate (NSF Cross-Cutting Solicitation)
Agency: National Science Foundation
Program Summary: The goal of the Water Sustainability and Climate (WSC) solicitation is to understand and predict the interactions between the water system and climate change, land use (including agriculture, managed forest and rangeland systems), the built environment, and ecosystem function and services through place-based research and integrative models. Studies of the water system using models and/or observations at specific sites singly or in combination that allow for spatial and temporal extrapolation to other regions, as well as integration across the different processes in that system are encouraged, especially to the extent that they advance the development of theoretical frameworks and predictive understanding. Specific topics of interest include:

• Developing theoretical frameworks and models that incorporate the linkages and feedbacks among atmospheric, terrestrial, aquatic, oceanic, and social processes that can be used to predict the potential impact of (1) climate variability and change, (2) land use and (3) human activity on water systems on decadal to centennial scales in order to provide a basis for adaptive management of water resources.
• Determining the inputs, outputs, and potential changes in water budgets and water quality in response to  (1)  climate variability and change, (2) land use and (3) human activity, and the effect of these changes on Biogeochemical cycles, water quality, long-term chemical transport and transformation, terrestrial, aquatic and coastal ecosystems, landscape evolution and human settlements and behavior.
• Determining how our built water systems and our governance systems can be made more reliable, resilient and sustainable to meet diverse and often conflicting needs, such as minimizing consumption of water for energy generation, industrial and agricultural/forest rangeland production and built environment requirements, reuse for both potable and non-potable needs, ecosystem protection, and flood control and storm water management.

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Program Name: Hydrologic Sciences
Agency: National Science Foundation
Program Summary: Hydrologic Sciences focuses on the flow of water and transport processes within streams, soils, and aquifers. Particular attention is given to spatial and temporal heterogeneity of fluxes and storages of water, particles, and chemicals coupling across interfaces with the landscape, microbial communities, and coastal environments, to upscaling and downscaling given these heterogeneities and interfaces and how these processes are altered by climate and land use changes. Studies may address aqueous geochemistry as well as physical, chemical, and biological processes within water bodies. These studies commonly involve expertise from many basic sciences and mathematics, and proposals often require joint review with related programs.

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Program Name: Sustainable Vision Grants
Agency: National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA)
Program Summary: Sustainable Vision grants fund transformational education programs where breakthrough technologies are created and commercialized through entrepreneurial models for the benefit of people living in poverty in the US and abroad. Funds are awarded to US-based colleges and universities and can then be shared with partners (other universities, NGOs, etc.) in the US and abroad. Focus areas include, but are not limited to, health, clean air and water, energy, nutrition, and shelter. The grants support enrichment and deepening of ongoing programs by building and strengthening interpersonal and inter-institutional networks, and by creating new initiatives within existing programs.

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Program Name: Environmental Chemical Systems (ECS)
Agency: National Science Foundation
Program Summary: The Environmental Chemical Sciences (ECS) Program supports basic research in chemistry that promotes the understanding of natural and anthropogenic chemical processes in our environment.  Projects supported by this program enable fundamentally new avenues of basic research and transformative technologies. The program is particularly interested in studying molecular phenomena on surfaces and interfaces in order to understand the inherently complex and heterogeneous environment.  Projects utilize advanced experimental, modeling and computational approaches, as well as developing new approaches.  Topics include studies of environmental surfaces and interfaces under laboratory conditions, the fundamental properties of water  and water solutions important in environmental processes, dissolution, composition, origin and behavior of molecular scale systems under a variety of naturally occurring environmental conditions, chemical reactivity of synthetic nanoparticles and their molecular level interactions with the environment, and application of theoretical models and computational approaches to discover and predict environmental phenomena at the molecular scale.

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Program Name: Interfacial Processes and Thermodynamics
Agency: National Science Foundation
Program Summary: This program may also be relevant to research in Building Energy Efficiencies.  The Interfacial Processes and Thermodynamics program supports fundamental research in engineering areas related to:

• Interfacial phenomena
• Mass transport phenomena
• Molecular thermodynamics

Currently, emphasis is placed on molecular engineering approaches at interfaces, especially as applied to the nano-processing of soft materials.  Molecules at interfaces with functional interfacial properties are of special interest and have uses in many new technologies, based on nano-fabrication.  These interfacial molecules may have biomolecular functions at the micro- and nano-scale.  Interfacial materials are generally formed through molecular self-directed, -templated, and/or -assembly, and they are driven primarily by thermodynamic intermolecular forces, although may be influenced by flow and electrical forces.  In some cases, these interfacial processes may also be supplemented by weak chemical reactions.

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