California Air Resources Board

Introduction

This website contains all of the information needed by stakeholders interested in CARB’s Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Research Project Solicitation. This includes information on:

• Background information on the selection process for identifying the projects CARB intends to fund in fiscal year 2024-2025 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 2024-2025 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, partners, 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 2023. 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 15, 2023 and then approved by the CARB Executive Office in January of 2024. 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.

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: Thursday July 11, 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 Monday July 15.
2. Pre-proposals must be submitted by email to research@arb.ca.gov before 5pm, August 12, 2024
3. All pre-proposal submitters will be notified of the status of their submission on September 2, 2024
4. For selected pre-proposals only, full proposals and detailed budgets will be due on September 23, 2024

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 Monday July 15. 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 August 12, 2024.

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 August 12, 2024

Empowering Vulnerable Communities with Low-Cost Sensors and Air Filtration Devices

• Description

  • Bayview-Hunters Point (BVHP) is a neighborhood in southeastern San Francisco that has faced historical pollution problems adversely affecting the health and well-being of its residents. BVHP has historically been an industrial hub of San Francisco and the concentration of industrial sites and activity has caused numerous pollution problems that negatively impact the health and well-being of the community and environment. Residents of Bayview Hunters Point continue to be disproportionally impacted by pollution and suffer high rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses, diabetes, and cancer.

    The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of air cleaning devices and air quality monitoring on indoor air quality for BVHP residents. For this study, residents will be given high efficiency filters (such as HEPA) and low-cost indoor portable air sensors to detect and record indoor PM2.5 levels. Residents will be trained in using equipment to improve indoor air quality and surveyed throughout the study to gauge whether they felt there was an improvement in their respiratory health.

• Scope of Work and Scoring Criteria

• Maximum award amount: $850,000

Quantifying health benefits, ecosystem service benefits, and other impacts of California’s urban green spaces

• Description

  • Urban greening is a key action included in CARB’s Scoping Plan to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and increasing urban forests is one strategy to achieve this goal. In addition to their role in reducing GHG emissions, urban green spaces provide a variety of health and ecosystem service benefits to the communities of California. Health benefits include reduced mortality and morbidity as well as improved mental health. Ecosystem service benefits include decreased air pollution, reduction of heat and heat islands, increased shading of houses and buildings, flood protection, and recreational opportunities. Both health and ecosystem service benefits of urban green spaces have direct economic consequences, such as reducing healthcare costs, saving in energy costs required to cool homes and buildings, decreasing property damage due to flooding, and creating urban forestry jobs. However, urban greenness is not distributed equally in California. Vulnerable communities and communities of color have less access to green space, which highlights equity concerns for the distribution of greenness.

    Although urban greening benefits and equity concerns are qualitatively understood, quantifying health and ecosystem service benefits, their accompanying economic benefits, and the equity of their distribution is more challenging. The objective of the project is to develop methodologies to quantify the statewide, regional, and local health benefits for California’s urban greenspaces currently and for future projections of urban greening under climate change. Methods will also be developed to assess the impacts of greenness on ecosystem service benefits. This study will support programs in CARB’s Nature-Based Strategies to increase green space in California communities, through street, neighborhood, and schoolyard greening efforts. These methods will enable CARB to evaluate the health, ecosystem service benefits, and economic impacts of California’s greenness as they relate to the distribution of greenness in vulnerable communities and how future greening scenarios can remedy inequity in access to urban greenspace. CARB staff will collaborate and work closely with the selected investigators on all aspects of this project. The research team selected for this investigation will be familiar with the methods and techniques used to quantify the impacts of urban greenness on health and ecosystem services in communities, and state economics, as well as environmental justice concerns surrounding urban greening.

    The selected team will work in close collaboration with CARB and interact with related contracts funded by CARB. Collaborators will co-design all aspects of the contract, including the health and ecosystem service impacts to be evaluated, the measurement of impacts, the definition of the method used for identifying vulnerable communities, and all other original methods that will be developed and executed during this contract. The methods will be designed to be used by CARB for presenting the benefits of Nature-Based Solution programs that increase levels of greenness in the state and will not be designed as a public facing tool. This study will help to show the economic value of urban greening as a key action to achieve net-zero GHG emissions. The study will also show the disparities in greenness in low income and other vulnerable communities and will help identify communities in California that should be prioritized for programs to increase greenness.  

• Scope of Work and Scoring Criteria

  • Additional information has been added as an attached document at the bottom of the scope of work and scoring criteria page. Follow the above link to see the full project description and the FAQ attachment.

• Maximum award amount: $700,000

Exposure and health impacts of non-exhaust particles in a region with vulnerable communities exposed to higher traffic emissions

• Description

  • Many California Air Resources Board rules and programs have been focused on traffic emissions which are a major source of pollution in the State and are well documented to have numerous serious health impacts, including increased deaths. However, traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) includes gaseous pollutants and particulates from both tailpipe and non-tailpipe emissions (NEE). While tailpipe emissions have been reduced due to CARB’s regulations and the increase in the number of zero emission vehicles in the state, NEE such as brake and tire wear have not been regulated and the adverse impacts are not well studied. Brake and tire wear particles may be potentially more toxic per unit of PM2.5 mass due to their increased ability to produce oxidative stress, which has been linked to increased adverse health effects, and many overburdened communities are exposed to high levels of roadway emissions including brake and tire wear. While there have been several studies by CARB and other agencies to better understand the chemical composition of brake and tire wear, these studies are mostly from directly sampled sources, and more study is needed to understand the impacts of brake and tire wear on ambient air exposures and health. This research need has been recognized by CARB and other organizations. This study will coordinate with and build on previous and ongoing research projects to conduct a regional assessment for brake and tire wear from on road emissions in ambient air, particularly in understudied areas of California such as the San Joaquin Valley. The objective of this CARB funded study is to develop methods, including sampling and modeling methods to develop exposure profiles to brake and tire wear PM2.5 and PM10 from ambient air, to determine the health risk (particularly respiratory and cardiovascular outcomes) in a region with overburdened communities with high exposures.

    The selected team will work in collaboration with CARB staff in developing the study methods, including a workplan for the study. The information provided by this study will inform policies and programs, including mitigation strategies to reduce the impacts of brake and tire wear, in regions with vulnerable communities in California. The results will help CARB to understand the impacts of brake and tire wear emissions on health, particle toxicity, and exposure disparities for areas exposed to higher levels of NEE.

• Scope of Work and Scoring Criteria

• Maximum award amount: $850,000