California Air Resources Board

Introduction

This website contains all of the information needed by stakeholders interested in CARB’s Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Research Project Solicitation. This includes information on:

• Background information on the selection process for identifying the projects CARB intends to fund in fiscal year 2025-2026 and the process leading to the pre-proposal solicitation.
• Solicitation details, including relevant dates and details on individual projects.
• Registration link for the public meeting on the solicitation.  A recording of the meeting will be posted on this website after the meeting.
• Additional resources for prospective applicants, including a frequently asked questions document.

How can you get in contact with us if you have further questions?

• To receive an email notification on solicitation updates and all other research planning activities, sign up for the Research Activities listserv here: https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/CARB/subscriber/new.
• You may also email us directly at research@arb.ca.gov.

Background

The California Air Resources Board (CARB or Board) has identified its fiscal year 2025-2026 priority research projects. The proposed projects support CARB’s regulatory priorities related to health, environmental justice, economics, air pollution, and climate change.

The selection of these projects was guided by the research initiatives outlined in the Triennial Strategic Research Plan for Fiscal Years 2021-2024 (Plan), along with extensive coordination with other agencies, research institutions, the public, and experts in these fields of research. The selection of these projects was also informed by the project concept and comment survey deployed in the Spring of 2024. A public meeting was held to support this effort and extensive input was collected to inform this and future year research priorities. For more information on the comment and concept collection effort, please visit the research comment portal.

Solicitation Details

Who can apply?

In order to be eligible to apply for this solicitation, the principal investigator must be associated with the University of California or California State University (UC/CSU). UC/CSU researchers can partner with members of other public and private institutions, such as other universities, non-profit organizations, community-based organizations or private research institutes to submit a multidisciplinary pre-proposal. There are limitations to funding amounts for partners. In addition, members of CARB advisory groups may not be signatories to the contract, be listed as completing tasks in the scope of work or communicate with CARB regarding CARB’s decision on the proposed contracts. If an active CARB advisory group member makes a prohibited appearance or communication subject to Government Code section 87104 as described above, the application will not be eligible for an award. More information is available in the Frequently Asked Questions document available below.

Relevant Dates and Process Description

Proposed project concepts were presented at a public meeting on November 18 and 20, 2024 and then reviewed by the CARB Executive Office in January of 2025. A pre-proposal solicitation is released once these concepts are developed into full proposals. Additional projects may be released for solicitation later in the fiscal year and any active solicitations are posted on this page. In addition, some projects are put out for a Request for Proposal (RFP) and posted on the California E-Procure site (use department 3900 to find CARB RFPs). Once pre-proposals are identified to move forward for each project, staff will work with the research team to develop the research project into a complete proposal. These proposals will then be reviewed by the Research Screening Committee (RSC). The proposal will be submitted for contract preparation and execution considering recommendations from the RSC. Projects kick-off after contract execution. Results are anticipated in two to three years after the kickoff.

Resources available for prospective applicants

This page contains a pre-proposal template and a frequently asked questions document on CARB’s solicitation and contracting processes. Please see the documents linked at the bottom of this page.

Each year, CARB posts the solicitation on the Empower Innovation website to foster the development of partnerships between university researchers and new research partners. Prospective researchers are encouraged to create a profile on Empower Innovation to find partners.

Virtual Public Meetings on CARB’s Research Pre-Proposal Solicitation

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) staff typically holds virtual public meetings to help interested parties learn more about the solicitation for research pre-proposals for each funding year. At solicitation meetings, CARB staff provide details on all projects included in the solicitation and the expectations for submitted pre-proposals. Slides for recent public meetings are available below. Please see the documents linked at the bottom of this page. A link to the recording of the recent public meeting presentation is available below.

Solicitation Meeting Details

Date: Tuesday April 1, 3:30-5:00pm

Meeting recording

The slides presented at the meeting are available at the bottom of this page.

Current Solicitation Details

Relevant dates

1. Letters of interest are requested and can be submitted by email to research@arb.ca.gov before 5pm on Thursday April 10.
2. Pre-proposals must be submitted by email to research@arb.ca.gov before 5pm, May 2, 2025.
3. All pre-proposal submitters will be notified of the status of their submission on May 23, 2025.
4. For selected pre-proposals only, full proposals and detailed budgets will be due on June 6, 2025.

Application Process

If your research team is interested in conducting projects currently in active solicitation, please submit a letter of interest to research@arb.ca.gov by Thursday April 10. The letter of interest can consist of a brief email including the contact information of the prospective principal investigator (name, email, UC/CSU affiliation) and the title of the project you intend to apply for. No further details are required.

Full pre-proposals must be submitted to research@arb.ca.gov by 5 p.m. on May 2, 2025.

Responses to this solicitation should follow the pre-proposal template attached to this page. The main elements of the pre-proposal shall include the following:

• A pre-proposal that does not exceed five-pages and discusses your proposed approach for conducting the research project.
• A curriculum vitae or statement of qualifications for all major scientists, community members and/or non-academic researchers who would be involved in the study (does not count toward 5-page limit of pre-proposal).
• A brief description of research that has been conducted or is currently underway by the applicant in areas related to this topic (it is preferable that this include funding source and amount of research funds; does not count toward 5-page limit of pre-proposal).
• For projects that include an equity component and/or community engagement, it is required that research teams provide a cultural competency/humility statement not to exceed two pages in length (does not count toward 5-page limit of pre-proposal).
• A preliminary budget using the Budget Form found in the template (does not count toward 5-page limit of pre-proposal).

Please reference the Scope of Work and Scoring Criteria information provided below for each project to get the full details on all pre-proposal requirements and project deliverables.

 List of Projects with Pre-Proposal Solicitation

Below is a list of the individual projects in active solicitation with a link to the paragraph description on the Empower Innovation site (provided soon) and a link to the individual project page where prospective researchers can find a detailed description of the project, or Scope of Work, and the Scoring Criteria, which is the basis upon which CARB staff will rank pre-proposals.

Currently Active

Pre-Proposals due May 2, 2025.

Effectiveness of advanced air purifiers and filtration for reducing H₂S, NO₂, VOCs and additional non-PM air pollutants

• Description

  • Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a significant class of indoor air pollutants and are known for their adverse effects on health. A common strategy to reduce indoor VOC levels is to use sorbents, including activated carbons. The amount of activated carbon is critical to achieving a reasonable air cleaner or HVAC filter lifetime in an air handling device; however, the problem is complex as various types of filters are used, and the type and concentration of VOCs in the indoor environment also varies in different settings.

    While standard air purifiers devices and panel filters (MERV 13+) on HVAC systems have been shown to greatly reduce levels of particulate matter indoors which have led to benefits for cardiovascular and respiratory health with indoor PM reductions, there are many other pollutants such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide, VOC, hydrogen sulfide from indoor sources and outdoor sources which can infiltrate indoors which can still cause a variety of respiratory symptoms such as reduced lung function, increased asthma attacks, and increased hospital admissions. There are commercially available devices which claim to reduce these of non-particulate air pollutants but not much information regarding their effectiveness especially in real-world settings. Evaluate both portable air cleaners and panel filters marketed to remove odors, VOCs and other air pollutants for their effectiveness in laboratory and real-world settings. Investigators would first conduct a literature review on the variety of products marketed to remove odors, VOCs and other pollutants and summarize what is currently known regarding the effectiveness and limitations of these devices.  They would then test the effectiveness of these devices using chamber and/or real-world locations and evaluate factors such as costs, pollutant removal effectiveness, and need for maintenance (filter/charcoal replacement) to determine which technologies work the best and under what conditions. Results will then be summarized regarding the pros and cons of each device or panel filters including effectiveness under a variety of real-world scenarios and associated costs of each technologies over time. The results from this study would also provide information on what is the best strategies to reduce indoor VOCs, odors, and other non-particulate air pollutants in impacted communities for a variety of scenarios including wildfire smoke, landfills, industry, and biogenic emissions.

  • Empower Innovation listing

• Scope of Work and Scoring Criteria

• Maximum award amount: $600,000

• Questions and answers

  • How many air filters and how many air purifiers do you expect the contractor to test?

    • There is no specific target number, but the literature review may dictate the different types of technologies and devices currently available to obtain a representative sample for testing.

  • How many VOC chemicals need to be tested?

    • The literature review should identify the major indoor VOCs of concern, which may dictate what the study should test.

  • What is the anticipated start date and duration for this contract?

    • The project is anticipated to begin in the spring of 2026 and last 24 months.