The Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment is pleased to announce a call for proposals to encourage research towards solutions for our energy and environmental future.

The Grant for Innovative Research in Energy and the Environment supports projects with potential to become sustained, collaborative, interdisciplinary research efforts towards solutions that enable environmentally sustainable energy and infrastructure systems.

Topics of Interest

This call supports projects which align with the Andlinger Center’s Research Initiatives (“Initiatives”), a set of broad themes where interdisciplinary research is needed to achieve ambitious goals. The Initiatives are described here. Spanning across these Initiatives are cross-cutting areas which include Enabling Technologies (hard tech and software tools, including AI), Systems Analysis and Modeling, and Policy and Decision Making. Investigators working in different cross-cuts are strongly encouraged to engage with each other in research and community dialogue to accelerate knowledge transfer and translation of research results into practice.This year’s call announces the Center’s interest in receiving proposals for research projects that advance the goals of the following three Initiatives:

• Industrial Decarbonization
• Renewable Energy Systems
• The Water-Energy-Resource Nexus

The scope and potential topics of interest under each initiative are provided below as an Appendix. Proposals outside of these themes will not be considered in this round of applications.

Funding Levels and Number of Awards

Two categories of projects will be awarded:

1. Seed, led by one or two principal investigators (PIs) and funded at up to $140k for one or two years. Seed projects should explore high risk, high reward fundamental research ideas and/or seed new collaborative directions (for projects involving multiple PIs).
2. Convergence, involving two or more PIs and funded at up to $430k for one or two years. Convergence projects draw together a collaborative, interdisciplinary team (i.e., representing different departments or clearly distinct disciplines) to address a multi-dimensional problem requiring different avenues of investigation. These projects should have potential to grow into sustained research programs that could form the basis of an externally funded center or other large-scale, multi-institutional research efforts.

The Andlinger Center anticipates funding up to two compelling submissions from this proposal call.

Deadlines

Prospective PIs who are interested in submitting a proposal are requested to send an email of intent briefly describing the project idea and listing the PI and co-PIs by Friday, September 4, to the Andlinger Center’s assistant director for research, Charlie Sharpless (csharpless@princeton.edu). and the grants manager, Kennedy Popek (kennedypopek@princeton.edu). Selected projects can start as early as January 2027.

Proposal Requirements, Evaluation, and Submission

Proposal Requirements

Seed Projects: The total proposal length for seed projects should not exceed three (3) pages excluding the cover page, references, and budget rationale. Proposals must include the section elements in the order listed below.

• Cover page (not included in page count). This consists of a project title, list of PIs, requested budget, anticipated start date, project duration, project abstract (150 words max), and the associated ACEE Research Initiative(s).
• Background (approximately 0.5 page). Explain the target research questions and problems and the significance in the realm of energy and the environment.
• Objectives and approach (approximately 2 pages). Describe the research objectives, general plan of work, preliminary findings, and methods to be used.
• Expected outcomes and future plans (approximately 0.5 page). Explain the key expected outcomes, how they will advance knowledge or otherwise address the target problem, and outline future directions for the research (particularly how it might grow collaborations and interdisciplinarity and lead to potential external research awards).
• References (not included in page count).
• Budget rationale (not included in page count). State the amount of funds requested and provide an explanation of how the funds would be spent. If awarded, a budget and budget justification will be required. Faculty summer salaries may not be charged to these awards.
• NSF-style biosketch (3 pp maximum) for the PI and all co-PIs
• Statement of current and pending research funding for the PI and all co-PIs

Convergence Projects: The total proposal length for convergence projects should not exceed four (4) pages excluding the cover page, references, and budget rationale. Proposals must include the section elements in the order listed below.

• Cover page (not included in page count). This consists of a project title, list of PIs, requested budget, anticipated start date, project duration, project abstract (150 words max), and the associated ACEE Research Initiative(s).
• Background (approximately 0.5 page). Explain the target research questions and problems and the significance in the realm of energy and the environment.
• Objectives and approach (approximately 2 pages). Describe the research objectives, general plan of work, preliminary findings, and methods to be used.
• Team members’ expertise and roles (approximately 0.5 page). Describe the investigators expertise, their project roles, and how they will collaborate.
• Expected outcomes (approximately 0.5 page). Explain the key expected research and other outcomes, noting how they will advance knowledge or otherwise address the target problem.
• Future plans (approximately 0.5 page). Outline plans for project growth towards large external proposals, noting team building efforts that will be pursued during the project, specific funding opportunities of interest, and how the efforts would complement those of existing centers (if any) in the US.
• References (not included in page count).
• Budget rationale (not included in page count). State the amount of funds requested and provide a brief explanation of how the requested funds would be spent. If awarded, a budget and budget justification will be required. Faculty summer salaries may not be charged to these awards.
• NSF-style biosketch (3 pp maximum) for the PI and all co-PIs
• Statement of current and pending research funding for the PI and all co-PIs

Proposal Evaluation

Both Seed and Convergence projects will be reviewed by a faculty committee and assessed by the following criteria:

1. To what extent does the project suggest and explore creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts that can address problems posed by the PIs’ chosen initiative?
2. Is the plan for carrying out the proposed activities well-reasoned, well-organized, and based on a sound rationale?
3. Are the expected outcomes reasonable, and would they constitute notable progress towards addressing the stated target problem?

Seed projects will be evaluated by the additional criterion:

• Are the plans for future directions logical and compelling with regard to research thrusts and paths for growing interdisciplinarity?

Convergence projects will be evaluated by the additional criteria:

• Is the team well-structured with respect to expertise and interdisciplinarity?
• Are the plans for future growth logical with regard to (a) building a multi-pronged research effort, (b) assembling an interdisciplinary team, and (c) preparing the team to compete for large center-level proposals from funding agencies?

Proposal Submission

Proposals should be submitted through InfoReady using the following link: https://princeton.infoready4.com/#freeformCompetitionDetail/2018145 

Eligiblity

Only full-time Princeton faculty or senior research scholars are eligible to serve as a PI or co-PI. An individual may serve as investigator on up to two proposals and may only be a lead investigator on one proposal. Researchers who have received a Convergence award from the previous two cycles of this program are ineligible to serve as PI but may serve as a co-PI. Investigators who have previously received grants from the Andlinger Center must be up-to-date with report submissions before submitting a proposal. All things being equal, preference will be given to proposals submitted by PIs who are not currently receiving funding from either the Andlinger Center’s Fund for Energy Research with Corporate Partners or the Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellows Programs.

Requirements for funded projects

1. Reports: For all projects, a summary report will be due at the conclusion of the funding term. For multi-year projects, a progress report will be due at the end of year one. Report requirements will be communicated to PIs of awarded projects.
2. Participation in Andlinger Center events: During or soon after the award period, the PI and relevant team members will be invited to present the research results in a poster or panel session at an appropriate Andlinger Center event.

The Andlinger Center’s assistant director for research, Charlie Sharpless (csharpless@princeton.edu) is available to answer general or technical questions, and provide guidance on topic selection or research strategy. Prospective PIs who are interested in submitting a proposal are to send an email of intent to Charlie Sharpless briefly describing the project idea and listing the PI and co-PIs by Friday, September 4.

Appendix:

Initiative 1: Industrial Decarbonization

This initiative supports a range of research aimed at reducing industrial carbon emissions via process innovation and enhanced efficiency. Given the breadth of processes, many approaches can be envisioned, including: technologies, systems, and policies that enable process electrification (e.g., electrified reactors, systems for integrating renewables and energy storage); green routes to industrially significant chemicals and fuels (e.g., hydrogen, ammonia, polymers, and biofuels), and improved energy and resource efficiency via diverse approaches (e.g., alternative feedstocks, process innovation, sustainable materials and manufacturing, communications and AI to improve resource and supply chain management, behavioral interventions).

Initiative 2: Renewable Energy Systems

This initiative supports activities that broadly seek to accelerate the development and deployment of renewable sources of electrical power. Research activities span all relevant technological stages, including materials innovations, device/system improvements, new approaches to integrate and manage renewable power from microgrid to grid scales (including appropriate energy storage technologies), novel methods to enhance siting flexibility and optimize power generation, and others. Renewable sources of interest include solar, wind, geothermal, marine energy, and fusion; the production of biofuels is not in scope for this initiative but is instead included under Industrial Decarbonization. In addition to technological innovation, the initiative also supports research aimed at developing modeling and policy frameworks that can accelerate the acceptance and integration of renewables into electrical power networks.

Initiative 3: The Water-Energy-Resource Nexus

This initiative offers broad scope for research around water treatment technologies, resource recovery, and process and systems engineering. Activities of interest include developing novel approaches for: reducing energy demands in drinking and waste water treatment, via centralized or distributed systems; extracting critical resources and/or energy from municipal and industrial wastewater; reducing water demand or improving water reuse in industrial processes and energy production; reducing pollutant and greenhouse gas fluxes from wastewater treatment streams.