US EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Research and Development, National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) is issuing this Request for Applications (RFA) for cooperative agreements to provide assistance conducting research to stimulate advances in the science of risk communication so that more effective methods, tools, and models can be used to empower communities to participate more effectively in environmental cleanups, especially the cleanup of contaminated sediment sites. Possible projects under this solicitation might include one or more of the following topics: tools to measure community preferences, tools to summarize complex data, methods to extract and utilize community-based knowledge, methods to assess impacts on societal/cultural practices, outreach tools for large geographic sites, and methods to evaluate the effectiveness of community involvement programs. The primary purpose of the research solicited by this document is to stimulate scientific research on the general topic of environmental risk communication and community involvement. The secondary purpose of the solicitation is to generate insights, methods, tools, and models that might be used to empower communities to participate more effectively in environmental cleanups, especially the cleanup of contaminated sediment sites. The total value of these cooperative agreement awards is estimated to range from $100,000 to $500,000 total over a period of one to three years depending on the availability of funding. Applications must be postmarked, dated by a delivery service or marked received by NCEA personnel by September 19, 2002.