NSF grants to to develop and test the environmental effects of new technologies - The National Science Foundation is accepting applications for its Environmental Implications of Emerging Technologies program to support new technologies such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, and information technology.
Summary: Fundamental and basic research is sought to establish and understand outcomes as a result of the implementation of new technologies such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, and information technology. The program also supports research on the development and refinement of sensors and sensor network technologies that can be used to measure a wide variety of physical, chemical, and biological properties of interest in characterizing, monitoring, and understanding environmental impacts.
The program emphasizes engineering principles underlying technology impacts.
Innovative production processes, waste reduction, recycling, and industrial ecology technologies are of interest. All of these have implications that would be relevant to this program.
Current areas of support include:
- Understanding and mitigating how new developments in nanotechnology, biotechnology, and information technology will interact with the environment
- Nanotechnology environmental, health, and safety implications and applications
- Predictive methodology for the interaction of nanoparticles with the environment and with the human body, including predictive approaches for toxicity
- Fate and transport of natural, engineered, and incidental (by-product) nanoparticles
- Risk assessment and management of the effect of nanomaterials in the environment
- Evaluation of the effect of increased usage of renewable resources on water supply and land use
- Sensor and sensor network technologies as they relate to the measurement of these environmental implications
Source: Funding Opportunity Number: PD-09-1179
Applications Due By: September 15, 2009
Date Released: 03/23/2009
Web site: The grant announcement is at
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=501030
Contact: Paul L. Bishop, (703) 292-2161, pbishop@nsf.gov<mailto:pbishop@nsf.gov>