Environmental System Science (ESS)
DOE seeks research applications for Environmental System Science, focusing on plant-soil interactions, coastal systems, and degraded lands to improve Earth system models.
This grant is no longer accepting proposals
Office of Science has archived this opportunity.
Funder: [Office of Science - https://www.energy.gov/science]
Due Dates: March 13, 2025 (Current Closing Date) | April 12, 2025 (Archive Date)
Funding Amounts: Estimated total program funding $6,000,000; individual awards range from $100,000 to $1,000,000
Summary: Supports research to advance predictive understanding of terrestrial systems and their microbial, biogeochemical, ecological, hydrological, and physical processes, emphasizing understudied ecosystems.
Key Information: DOE/NNSA National Laboratories are not eligible to apply or be subrecipients; focus areas include plant-soil-microbe interactions, coastal system synthesis, and Earth system processes in degraded lands.
Description
The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science’s Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program invites applications for research under the Environmental System Science (ESS) program. The ESS program aims to develop an integrated, robust, and scale-aware predictive understanding of terrestrial systems and their interconnected microbial, biogeochemical, ecological, hydrological, and physical processes.
Research supported by this program focuses on foundational process knowledge, particularly in understudied ecosystems. The program encourages projects that use measurements, experiments, field data, modeling, and synthesis to improve understanding and representation of ecosystems and watersheds. The goal is to enhance the sophistication and capabilities of models spanning from individual processes to Earth-system scales.
This funding opportunity encompasses three primary Science Research Areas:
- Plant-soil-microbe interactions and their influence on belowground biogeochemical processes.
- Synthesis studies using existing data to test ESS-relevant hypotheses and develop transferable insights into knowledge gaps, specifically for U.S. southeast coastal systems.
- Synthesis studies on contributions and vulnerabilities of Earth system processes in marginal and degraded lands.
The ESS program employs a systems approach to elucidate complex processes and controls on terrestrial and watershed systems, spanning molecular to global scales and extending from bedrock through soil, rhizosphere, vegetation, and atmosphere. Emphasis is placed on ecological and hydro-biogeochemical linkages and processes across interfaces such as terrestrial-aquatic, coastal, and urban environments.
Incorporation of scientific findings into process and system models is a key strategy to improve predictive understanding and to identify new research questions and directions.
