CFP- Exploratory Research Grant

CFP- Exploratory Research Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory
Last Updated: July 11, 2025

Summary

The CFP- Exploratory Research Grant offered by the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) supports innovative research in environmental and biological sciences. This grant encourages proposals that utilize EMSL's cutting-edge capabilities to advance scientific understanding of critical minerals and materials in various environments. Applicants should focus their research on one or two key objectives within a condensed 9-month timeframe. Collaborating with EMSL scientists during proposal development is strongly advised for optimal outcomes.

Overview

About EMSL The Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) is a Department of Energy, Office of Science user facility at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. At EMSL, our scientists focus on advancing basic science by supporting fundamental biological and environmental research, as well as computing sciences. We grow American scientific leadership by collaborating on projects with researchers from academia, other government laboratories, and industry. Scientists can partner with us to use our world-class laboratory space, expertise, and equipment—for free—if their research proposal is accepted through our peer-review process and they intend to publish their results and findings. Opportunities to work with us are available throughout the year CFP- Exploratory Research Grant Proposals must employ one or more of the capabilities highlighted below to advance scientific understanding in the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory’s (EMSL’s) three Science Areas (Functional and Systems Biology, Environmental Transformations and Interactions, Computing, Analytics, and Modeling). As a guide, at least 30% of the research effort should focus on the highlighted capabilities listed below in terms of requested hours or samples analyzed. Other EMSL Instruments and Resources may be used to supplement your research plan. Interested users are encouraged to work closely with EMSL scientists when developing the letter of intent (LOI) and subsequent proposal. We also encourage submissions that propose to use highlighted capabilities to investigate biogeochemical transformations, organisms, and cellular pathways central to the understanding of cycling, acquisition, concentration, and separation of critical minerals and materials (CMMs) in natural and artificial/anthropogenic environments as well as the cleanup and remediation of industrial waste streams. The latter include but are not limited to sediments, soils, and bioreactors, as well as process brines from geothermal, oil, and natural gas wells. Exploratory proposals are approximately a third of the duration and budget of a full Large-Scale Research (LSR) or Facilities Integrating Collaborations for User Science (FICUS) proposal. To help accomplish research goals during the 9-month time frame, we encourage applicants to focus the research narrative on one or possibly two objectives. For proposals that are awarded, we strongly encourage applicants to be ready to ship samples as close as possible to the project start date.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website.