The California Air Resources Board (CARB or Board) invites you to participate in a public meeting to discuss research priorities for CARB to fund in fiscal year 2023-2024. The purpose of the meeting is to solicit comments from the public on the research concepts that CARB is considering to fund in fiscal year 2023-2024. In addition, staff will provide an update on the submissions CARB received from the public call for research concepts and comments. To attend this meeting, please use the registration link below. Material that will be presented at the meeting will be available on the research comment portal for public review after September 6, 2022.

BACKGROUND

The Legislature created the Board’s research program in 1971 to support CARB’s goals by providing the scientific foundation for effective air pollution control. The research program encompasses all aspects of air pollution and plays an important role in meeting the challenges of increasingly stringent federal air quality standards and long-term climate goals and serves as the foundation for effective regulatory decisions. Research Program priorities are also responsive to emerging topics, public input, and aim to advance measuring and monitoring methods and improve health outcomes.

Each year, CARB staff presents a list of research projects to the Board for approval. If approved, a solicitation for pre-proposals is released based on the approved projects. CARB staff plan to present the projects for fiscal year 2023-2024 at the January 2023 Board meeting. If the projects are approved by the Board, it is anticipated that projects will commence as early as August 2023.

CARB collects public input on research priorities through a variety of methods. CARB staff host public meetings and comment periods for the development of each Triennial Strategic Research Plan, as well as the annual list of projects that are presented each year to the Board for approval.

This year, CARB collected research concepts and comments during the spring of 2022 and has used the submissions to develop a list of prospective project concepts that are in alignment with CARB program priorities. The list of CARB’s research priorities typically exceeds what can be funded by CARB’s annual research budget of $4 million. Comments collected from the public at this meeting will help to determine the highest priority project concepts that CARB could fund in fiscal year 2023-2024.

The public meeting will begin with introductions and a brief overview of the CARB Research Program by CARB staff, as well as a summary of the comments and concepts submitted by the public from the public call for research concepts and comments that closed on June 15, 2022. The staff presentation will be followed by an open discussion of the list of project concepts being considered. All comments from the discussion will be recorded and used to guide project selection.

Tentative Agenda

• 4:30 to 4:35 PM: Introductions
• 4:35 to 4:45 PM: CARB Research Program Overview
• 4:45 to 5:00 PM: Summary of Comments and Concepts Received
• 5:00 to 6:00 PM: Open Discussion of Proposed Research Concepts (order of topics to be discussed)
  • Health and Environmental Justice
  • Air Quality and Mobile Sources
  • Sustainable Communities and Transport and Climate

Comments

To submit a written comment on research priorities for CARB to fund in fiscal year 2023-2024, please email them to research@arb.ca.govby 5 PM on September 23, 2022. A summary of all comments received at the meeting and via email will be summarized in a new appendix in an updated version of the 2021-2024 Triennial Strategic Research Plan that will be available on January 31, 2023.