California Air Resources Board

The California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) Sustainable Transportation and Communities Division has identified six priority projects for which it is seeking brief pre-proposals from California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) academics. These six projects will fill important data, information, and research gaps to support the division’s programs related to sustainable transportation, land use, housing, and buildings.

CARB is committed to increasing the equitable impact of our efforts agencywide, and as such, this solicitation contains several projects that will explore, address, and embody racial equity components. The goal of increasing the equity elements of projects, awareness of project opportunities, and diverse collaboration between academics of various backgrounds is to achieve equitable and healthy sustainable transportation and community strategies that meet California’s climate goals.

See answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

List of Projects

1. Wildfire Recovery and Sustainable Building Practices in Disadvantaged California Communities | up to $750,000 | Detailed Statement of Work 
2. Enhancing Equitable Access: Developing a Methodology to Measure Project-Level Impacts on Destination Accessibility for Priority Populations | up to $500,000 | Detailed Statement of Work
3. Enhancing Methods to Measure the Climate Benefits of Agricultural Land Conservation | up to $300,000 | Detailed Statement of Work
4. Site Visits to Understand Real-world Experience with Building Decarbonization | up to $500,000 | Detailed Statement of Work
5. Policies and Metrics to Facilitate Growth in Strategic Areas | up to $350,000 | Detailed Statement of Work
6. Effects of Zero-Emission Regulations on Housing Affordability and Rental Costs | up to $450,000 | Detailed Statement of Work

Scoring Criteria, Minimum Expectations, and Application Process

Scoring Criteria

Responsiveness to the goals and objectives outlined in the pre-proposal solicitation (15 points)

The pre-proposal should demonstrate a clear understanding of the policy objectives and research needs that CARB aims to address with this project while highlighting the proposers’ expertise on the subject.

The pre-proposal should consider various aspects of the need and identify or acknowledge any potential biases. It should outline, in sufficient detail, the proposed approach to meeting the requirements of the Solicitation.

The pre-proposal must detail work that aligns with the objectives outlined in the Solicitation: The objective of this research project is to enhance CARB’s understanding of the potential long-term economic effects of installing zero-emission space and water heaters in new construction and existing buildings, including effects on property value, home ownership, and rental costs across various income levels and market segments.  It will provide recommendations to inform policy and program design and implementation.

Policy relevance/benefits to the state (10 points)

The pre-proposal must describe how the project will provide data, information, and/or products to support the objectives of this project in furtherance of CARB’s mission. 

Previous work (15 points)

The pre-proposal should demonstrate that the proposers have a team with the work experience or subject matter expertise required to successfully carry out the proposed project as described in the varying tasks. Additionally, the pre-proposal should describe how the project will build upon previous relevant work that was funded by CARB, other regional, state, and federal agencies (e.g., the U.S. EPA, U.S. Department of Energy). If the project includes an equity component and/or community engagement, proposers should describe prior experience in community engagement and provide letters of support, references, or a community impact statement detailing how their previous work has benefited communities.

Five points will be reserved for project teams that meet at least one of the following criteria:

1. The project team is multi-disciplinary.
2. The project team includes members from various universities, non-academic institutions, or community-based organizations.
3. The project team includes one or more members who will contribute significantly to the project (e.g., a principal investigator, co-principal investigator, or co-investigator, contributing 25% or more of their time) who have not worked with CARB in the past 5 years.

Technical merit (25 points)

The pre-proposal should clearly explain the logic and feasibility of the project’s methodology, spell out the sequence and relationships of major tasks, and explain methods for performing the work. The pre-proposal should include a clear description and plan for how each task will be completed. 

The pre-proposal should also explain how the proposed methods are robust and how the results will be validated. Pre-proposals will be reviewed for how well they address these areas:

1. Is the proposed measurement approach appropriate? Are the technologies being considered suitable, and will the proposed analysis yield relevant results?
2. Does the proposed work address all the deliverables outlined in the “Deliverables” section? If not, the proposal will not be considered for funding.
3. The review team will select only one pre-proposal for development into a full proposal. If this pre-proposal shows potential, what areas or topics should be prioritized or further explained in the full proposal?

Level and quality of effort to be provided (15 points)

The pre-proposal should describe how time and resources will be allocated and demonstrate how this allocation ensures the project’s success. Pre-proposal reviewers will evaluate whether supervision and oversight are sufficient to keep the project on schedule, and whether the distribution of time and resources is appropriate for activities such as research, evaluation, analysis, data reduction, computer simulation, report preparation, meetings, and travel.

Cost effectiveness (20 points)

Pre-proposal reviewers will evaluate if costs are appropriately allocated across different project tasks and stages and if the proposed work appears feasible within the requested budget.

Scoring Criteria Scoring Guidance

91-100 points. Exceptionally strong. The submission is technically strong, meets stated research objectives, is cost-effective, and has a high potential to be successfully completed.

81-90 points. Strong. The submission is technically sound.

71-80 points. Mixed. The submission has either strong technical merit or strong policy significance, but not both.

61-70 points. Weak. The submission is not sufficiently linked to the needs of the Board and offers limited technical merit.

60 points or below. Unacceptable. The submission is not linked to the interests or needs of the Board and lacks technical merit.

Minimum Expectations

Provided below are the minimum expectations at various phases of the contract. Expectations at the pre-proposal stage are applicable to all proposers, while the remaining three expectations are applicable only to proposers whose pre-proposal is selected.

At the Pre-Proposal Stage

• Refer to the Application Process section

At the Beginning of the Contract

• All researchers whose pre-proposals are selected must undergo cultural humility training (e.g., implicit bias training and racial equity training). Training should be completed or scheduled within 30 days of contract execution.

During the Active Contract Period

• The Contractor must submit Quarterly Progress Reports. These reports shall include plain-language summaries that can be posted publicly. CARB will provide the progress report template.
• The Contractor shall engage in frequent (e.g., monthly) consultation calls with CARB and key interested parties.
• For any community engagement efforts, if applicable, the contractor must collaborate with CARB staff to co-create meeting materials, including presentation slides, flyers, prompts, and speaking notes. The contractor must also ensure that CARB policies are accurately represented to the public. CARB participation in community meetings is preferred, provided that CARB’s presence does not negatively impact community engagement efforts.
• The contractor shall submit Interim reports to keep CARB staff informed. These reports are expected at the end of each task, upon CARB staff’s request, to ensure that progress is being made.

Prior to Contract Close

• The contractor shall submit all data, analyses, and analytical tools generated during this project.
• The contractor shall satisfy the following requirements of the Draft Final Report (DFR):
• DFR will be copy-edited, reviewed, and approved by the Principal Investigator.
• Include a plain language summary in DFR
• Include an equity implications section in DFR
• If applicable, have the DFR reviewed by community representatives.
• The contractor must work with CARB to create plain-language outreach deliverables for the public, summarizing the results and impact of the project.
• The Final Report submitted to CARB must be in an accessible format aligned with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
• The contractor will participate in a virtual or in-person seminar to present the project findings.
• Peer-reviewed publications should be publicly available (please budget for this expense; submission-ready publications shall be reviewed by CARB staff).
• All the interim deliverables mentioned in the Solicitation must be completed and additional deliverables, if any, shall be determined in consultation with CARB staff.

Application Process

If your team is interested in conducting any of these projects, please submit a pre-proposal by email to stcdivision@arb.ca.gov by 5 p.m. on July 14, 2025.

Responses to this solicitation should include the following:

1. A brief technical pre-proposal that does not exceed five pages and discusses your proposed approach for conducting the project.
2. A curriculum vitae or statement of qualifications for all key personnel who would be involved in the study (separate attachment, does not count toward five-page limit of pre-proposal).
3. 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, but not required, that this description include funding source and amount of research funds. This can be in a separate attachment and will not count toward the five-page limit of pre-proposal).
4. For projects that include an equity component and/or community engagement (as noted in the project description), it is required that teams provide a cultural competency/humility statement not to exceed one-page in length (to be included as a separate attachment that does not count toward the five-page limit of pre-proposal).
5. A preliminary budget using the included Budget Summary Template.

Please carefully read the statement of work and scoring criteria information provided for each project to understand detailed requirements unique to each project.

These submissions will be used to gauge the extent of interest and available expertise within the UC and CSU systems. If a pre-proposal is selected for further development, the applicant will be notified no later than August 5, 2025. For selected investigators, an initial full proposal that meets CARB’s internal review requirements will be required by September 15, 2025. Funded projects are expected to begin in the spring of 2026.

Budget Summary Template

*Private subcontracting (i.e., any paid partners outside of a CSU or UC including private universities, community-based organizations, nonprofit organizations, private companies, etc.) is limited to 25% of the total direct cost or $50,000, whichever is less. Private subcontracting can be up to 50% but an additional attestation memo describing why the expertise within the subcontract cannot be found within the UC or CSU systems is required.

Relevant Dates

• July 14, 2025 – Pre-proposals must be submitted by email to stcdivision@arb.ca.gov by 5:00 p.m. 
• August 5, 2025 – Winning applicants will be notified. 
• September 15, 2025 – Full proposals due to CARB staff for review by 5:00 p.m.