Proposals for Sustainable Waste Management Practices – May 1

Posted by Environmental Research & Education Foundation on March 30, 2021

Environmental Research & Education Foundation Invites Proposals for Sustainable Waste Management Practices

The Environmental Research & Education Foundation (EREF) provides funding and directs scientific research and educational initiatives related to waste management practices for the benefit of industry participants and the communities they serve.

To that end, EREF welcomes applications for projects and research related to sustainable solid waste management practices. The following topic areas will be considered for grants: waste minimization; recycling; waste conversion to energy, biofuels, chemicals, or other useful products (including waste-to-energy, anaerobic digestion, composting, and 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.); and landfilling.

Previously awarded grants have ranged from $15,000 to more $500,000, with the average grant amount in recent years averaging $160,000 over an average of two years.

EREF defines solid waste to include municipal solid waste (e.g., residential, commercial, institutional); construction and demolition debris; certain industrial wastes (e.g., exploration and production waste, coal ash); and other wastes typically managed by the solid waste industry or generated by the public not included in the above items (e.g., electronic waste, disaster debris, et cetera).

Pre-proposals will be accepted starting from fifteen days prior to the deadline date and up to the close of business (5:00 p.m. ET) on May 1. Pre-proposals must be received during this window to be considered. Upon review, selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal.

Eligible applicants include U.S. and non-U.S.-based institutions; proposals will be accepted from non-academic institutions provided the principal investigators are qualified to conduct the research. Principal investigators (PI) may include full-time faculty at academic institutions, postdoctoral employees, and principals or senior personnel at non-academic institutions.

See the Environmental Research & Education Foundation website for complete program guidelines and application instructions.

Deadline: May 1, 2021 (Pre-proposals)