This week there are opportunities for funding to make solar power more affordable, to support research training for clinician and research scientists, and to combat child labor and forced labor.
Golden Field Office
Grant Title: Generation 3 Concentrating Solar Power Systems
Grant Info: http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=297296
Details: The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Solar Energy Technology Office (SETO) is seeking applications under this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to fund applied research and development to enable the reduction of the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) generated by concentrating solar power (CSP) to 6 ¢/kWh-electric or less, without subsidies. This FOA intends to develop integrated thermal system solutions to overcome the temperature limitations of current CSP systems while lowering capital costs by enabling the use of advanced turbines and achieving a higher overall system efficiency in converting solar thermal energy into electricity. Applications to this FOA are expected to advance individual high temperature components which have been developed at lab scale, and test them as an integrated system at a multi-MW thermal scale that can accept solar thermal energy, store it, and efficiently deliver it to a working fluid at high temperature, representative of a high efficiency power cycle.
Agency for Health Care Research and Quality
Grant Title: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Learning Health Systems Mentored Career Development Program (K12)
Grant Info: http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=297101
Details: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), in partnership with the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), invites applications for funding to support institutional career development awards designed to train clinician and research scientists to conduct PCOR research within learning health systems (LHS) focused on generation, adoption, and application of evidence in order to improve the quality and safety of care.
Bureau of International Labor Affairs
Grant Title: Building the Capacity of Civil Society to Combat Child Labor and Forced Labor and Improve Working Conditions
Grant Info: http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=297298
Details:The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), U.S. Department of Labor announces the availability of approximately $6,000,000 total costs for up to three cooperative agreements of up to $2,000,000 total costs each to fund technical assistance projects to improve the capacity of civil society to better understand and address child labor and/or forced labor abuses and promote acceptable conditions of work in a sector and/or supply chain. The project should achieve the following outcomes: (1) Improved capacity of civil society to identify and document accurate, independent, and objective information on the nature and scope of child labor and/or forced labor, and violations of acceptable conditions of work in a sector and/or supply chain; (2) Improved capacity of civil society to raise awareness for the protection of workers from child labor and/or forced labor abuses, and violations of acceptable conditions of work; and (3) Improved capacity of civil society to implement initiatives to address child labor and/or forced labor and violations of acceptable conditions of work, including facilitated access to grievance mechanisms and/or remedy for victims of labor exploitation. The duration of the project will be a maximum of 4 years (48 months) from the effective date of the award. Applicants must propose one (1) country and at least one (1) sector and/or supply chain within that country where there is evidence of child labor and/or forced labor in the production of a good in that particular sector or supply chain. Applicants must propose a country covered in the DOL’s Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor in accordance with the Trade and Development Act of 2000 or on the List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor as mandated by Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005. Proposals for working in the fisheries sector in the Asia-Pacific region will not be considered. Out of the three awards to be funded through this FOA, a minimum of one cooperative agreement will fund the strongest, technically sound application for a project focused on the coffee sector in one of the following countries in the Latin America/Caribbean region: Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, or Nicaragua. The other two cooperative agreements will be awarded in a country and sector and/or supply chain to be proposed by applicants, based upon the criteria contained in this announcement. DOL will make no more than one award for the same combination of country and sector/supply chain.