The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced plans to provide $10 million for new grants to universities, other academic institutions, non-profit organizations, for-profit organizations, and other federal agencies within the area of Earth and environmental systems modeling research. Grants will focus on two related areas of research: further development of DOE’s flagship Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM), with a particular emphasis on improving the accuracy of low-level cloud representations; and studies that improve the predictive understanding of the climate variability, water cycle, and related hydrological extremes.

Specific topics solicited in modeling research vary from year to year to enhance and take advantage of new modeling capabilities and emerging challenges facing the community. For this Funding Opportunity Announcement, grants will be strongly encouraged to emphasize high resolution, process-level, scientific understanding that advances or leverages E3SM’s current capability such as the Simple Cloud-Resolving E3SM Atmosphere Model (SCREAM) and the innovative use of a hierarchy of models, multi-models, machine learning, and metrics to reduce prediction uncertainty.       

“Climate prediction research has evolved to become a national imperative, given that the trend towards increasing climate-induced risks to people, property, and infrastructure requires concerted action and climate solutions,” said Sharlene Weatherwax, DOE Associate Director for Biological and Environmental Research. “These grants will ensure a strengthened science base for making more accurate predictions of climate change that must be well understood before making informed decisions.” 

The Department anticipates that $10 million will be available for this program in Fiscal Year 2022. Funding is to be awarded competitively, on the basis of peer review, and is expected to be in the form of three-year grants with total award amounts ranging from $600,000 to $900,000. 

The DOE Funding Opportunity Announcement, issued by DOE’s Office of Science, can be found here.

More information on the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) can be found here. More information on the BER Earth and Environmental System Modeling program can be found here.