Environmental Convergence Opportunities in Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems | 21 527

Opportunity Information: Apply for 21 527

The Environmental Convergence Opportunities in Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (ECO-CBET) grant is a National Science Foundation (NSF) funding opportunity designed to push environmental and sustainability research beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries. The central idea is that many of todays hardest problems like climate change, pollution, sustainable resource use, and resilient infrastructure are too complex for any single field to solve on its own. This program is rooted in the National Academies report "Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century: Addressing Grand Challenges," which lays out five broad societal challenges: sustainably supplying food, water, and energy; curbing climate change and adapting to impacts; designing a future without pollution and waste; creating efficient, healthy, resilient cities; and fostering informed decisions and actions. ECO-CBET aims to fund research that directly contributes to progress on these kinds of challenges by using a convergence research model, meaning teams intentionally integrate methods, knowledge, and ways of thinking from multiple fields into one tightly connected effort rather than running parallel, loosely coordinated projects.

A key emphasis of ECO-CBET is fundamental research that unlocks new foundational understanding of environmental processes and mechanisms, with the explicit goal of enabling future breakthroughs in the design of materials, processes, and systems. In practice, NSF is looking for projects that do more than apply existing tools to environmental problems. Instead, proposals should develop new scientific or engineering knowledge that can open up unanticipated solutions, such as new approaches to separations, new catalytic or electrochemical pathways, improved models of transport in complex media, or new bioengineered systems that change how environmental treatment, monitoring, or resource recovery can be done. The solicitation encourages ambitious, sustained, and coordinated efforts, meaning the work should be structured as a true team science project where the collaboration itself is essential to the research approach and outcomes.

The program is housed within NSF Engineerings Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET), and it intentionally pulls from CBETs core research communities. The solicitation broadly welcomes convergent teams spanning Chemical Process Systems (including catalysis, electrochemical systems, interfacial engineering, and process systems and reaction engineering), Engineering Biology and Health (including biosensing, cellular and biochemical engineering, and related areas), Environmental Engineering and Sustainability (including environmental sustainability and nanoscale interactions), and Transport Phenomena (including fluid dynamics, multiphase and particulate processes, and thermal transport). The strongest proposals are expected to combine complementary and distinct expertise across these areas, especially by linking communities that do not typically work together. The goal is to spark innovation through deep integration, for example connecting transport and interfacial phenomena with environmental treatment, or combining electrochemical systems with resource recovery and sustainability design, or merging biosensing and environmental systems to enable new monitoring and control strategies.

Team structure is a formal requirement and a major review focus. ECO-CBET proposals must name at least three investigators, and each investigator is expected to bring a genuinely different perspective or skillset that is necessary for the proposed research plan. NSF explicitly encourages creative team formation, including the option to add expertise beyond the usual CBET scope when it strengthens the work. That can include manufacturing expertise (to improve scalability or deployment pathways) and, when appropriate, social, behavioral, and economic sciences to expand real-world impact, decision relevance, adoption, and broader sustainability outcomes. Another stated objective is workforce development: training students and early-career researchers to work effectively across disciplines, since the program views that capability as essential for long-term progress on environmental and sustainability challenges.

While ECO-CBET is not limited to one narrow topic area, the solicitation highlights three priority themes for the current cycle: (1) greenhouse gas mitigation, (2) managing the nitrogen cycle, and (3) sustainable water purification and resource recovery systems. These priority areas signal where NSF is especially interested in seeing convergent, mechanism-driven advances, such as new mitigation pathways and systems for carbon or methane, deeper process understanding and innovative interventions for reactive nitrogen across engineered and natural systems, and next-generation purification and recovery approaches that reduce energy use, waste, and environmental burdens while reclaiming valuable resources.

In terms of funding, ECO-CBET awards are large, multi-year team grants. Typical awards are expected to fall between $1.5 million and $1.7 million total over four years, with budgets expected to match the scope and complexity of the work. Pending availability of funds, NSF indicates that awards may be eligible for a single renewal, extending total support up to eight years, but renewal is not automatic and would require a competitive merit review. The opportunity is labeled as a discretionary NSF grant under CFDA 47.041, with an anticipated number of awards around six for the referenced cycle. NSF also notes that, assuming adequate budget, the competition is expected to run annually, though the priority topic areas may shift in future years as agency and societal needs evolve.

Administrative details from the posted notice include Funding Opportunity Number 21-527, an NSF release date of November 13, 2020, and an original closing date of May 7, 2021. Eligibility is listed broadly as "Others" with further clarification in the official eligibility text, which typically means applicants should consult the full NSF solicitation and standard NSF eligibility rules to confirm institutional and organizational fit before preparing a proposal. Overall, ECO-CBET is best understood as a program for high-impact, interdisciplinary teams proposing foundational, tightly integrated research that can change what is possible in environmental engineering and sustainability by combining chemical process systems, transport science, and bioengineering with environmental and sustainability expertise.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Environmental Convergence Opportunities in Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.041.
• This funding opportunity was created on Nov 13, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 07, 2021. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,700,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 6 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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