This grantee workshop will feature Primary Investigators (PIs) and funded research projects recently awarded through U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Chemistry (CHE) collaborations.

In 2012, the EPA and NSF partnered to encourage collaboration in applying principles of sustainability to chemical management issues, including design, manufacture, use, and disposal/recycle. In support of these joint efforts, NSF awarded over $16 million in grants under the Networks for Sustainable Molecular Design and Synthesis (NSMDS) program to four universities for research on sustainable molecular design of chemical alternatives. Additionally in early 2014, EPA awarded two grants totaling more than $9 million under the Networks for Characterizing Chemical Life Cycle (NCCLC) program to research ways to characterize and predict health implications of chemicals on people and the environment by studying chemicals throughout their life cycle from design, manufacture, and use through disposal. These six grant awards support EPA's and NSF's continued commitment to increase knowledge of chemical life cycles and sustainable chemistry.

NSMDS researchers are working in transdisciplinary fields to promote the development of safe and sustainable chemicals, as well as safe and sustainable synthetic procedures. For more information on these four grants, visit New EPA/NSF awards reflect the interdisciplinary nature of sustainability science.

NCCLC researchers are working to promote the development of transdisciplinary systems- and molecular-level understanding of the life cycle of important (relevant) synthetic chemicals and materials (including nanomaterials), as these distribute and are potentially altered through use in society and interaction with the built and natural environments. For more information on these two grants, visit EPA/NSF Networks for Characterizing Chemical Life Cycle (NCCLCs) (2013).

Nora Savage (savage.nora@epa.gov); 703-347-8104