January 3, 2020
Jan. 9: Proposal teams development session for NSF ECO-CBET program submissions
A proposal teams development session will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 9, in 1139 Engineering Hall of the engineering complex for submissions to the National Science Foundation Environmental Convergence Opportunities in Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems, or ECO-CBET, program. Coordinated by the offices of Research Development, Engineering Research and Graduate Programs, and Educational Innovation and Evaluation, the session is open to all interested university faculty and staff.
This program requires teams to be constructed in such a manner that expertise is complementary and distinct. Nontraditional collaborations between research communities are highly encouraged. Teams may also wish to consider, as appropriate, incorporating individuals with expertise in manufacturing or social sciences.
The ECO-CBET solicitation seeks to engage the research communities represented among the programmatic clusters of CBET — chemical process systems, engineering biology and health, transport phenomena, and environmental engineering and sustainability — in the development of innovative, fundamentally driven approaches to tackle pressing environmental challenges. Projects are expected to advance and apply fundamental processes, mechanisms and theories to yield systems-level understanding and tools. Highly collaborative projects that pair environmental engineering and sustainability experts with complementary researchers from other process science disciplines, e.g., heat and mass transfer, catalysis, biotechnology, process design and control, etc., are sought. Experts in manufacturing and/or social sciences may also provide unique perspectives that serve to expand the technological and societal impact of the research.
The goals of the ECO-CBET program include:
- Encouraging new ways of thinking about environmental problems through atypical scientific collaborations and leveraging this diversity of perspectives to create innovative, holistic solutions.
- Integrating fundamental chemical process, transport and bioengineering science with environmental engineering and sustainability research toward reducing and mitigating pollution and waste.
- Training a future workforce prepared to develop and apply fundamental knowledge and approaches to solve environmental and sustainability problems.
Preliminary proposals are due to NSF Feb. 20 with invited full proposals due on April 30.
For additional information, contact Mary Lou Marino at mlmarino@k-state.edu, Carole Lovin at clovin@k-state.edu, or Katie Allen at klallen@k-state.edu.