Early Career Awards: Using a Total Environment Framework (Built, Natural, Social Environments) to Assess Life-long Health Effects of Chemical Exposures | EPA G2017 STAR D2

Opportunity Information: Apply for EPA G2017 STAR D2

The EPA Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program funding opportunity titled "Early Career Awards: Using a Total Environment Framework (Built, Natural, Social Environments) to Assess Life-long Health Effects of Chemical Exposures" supports early career research focused on how chemical pollution influences human health when viewed through a "total environment" lens. Instead of isolating chemical exposures from everything else happening in a persons life, this program is centered on the idea that health outcomes are shaped by the combined and interacting effects of the built environment (for example housing quality, transportation systems, industrial land use, and indoor environments), the natural environment (air, water, climate, ecosystems, and related processes), and the social environment (community conditions, socioeconomic status, stress, access to resources, discrimination, social networks, and other social determinants). The core premise is that chemical exposures do not operate in a vacuum: their health effects may be strengthened, weakened, or otherwise modified by the broader context in which exposure occurs.

The research emphasis is on developing and testing innovative models or impact assessment approaches that can better identify and explain causal relationships between chemical pollutants and health outcomes across the life course. Competitive projects are expected to move beyond simple association studies by building methods that can account for multiple interacting stressors and factors that accumulate or change over time, such as co-exposures to multiple chemicals, non-chemical stressors like psychosocial stress or noise, and contextual factors like neighborhood characteristics or access to healthcare. The opportunity is aimed at work that can untangle how these variables jointly influence health, including how certain environments or life circumstances may make individuals or populations more vulnerable (or more resilient) to the effects of chemical pollutants.

Because the "total environment" concept is inherently complex, the EPA strongly encourages proposals that integrate multiple disciplines and types of expertise. The announcement explicitly recommends combining perspectives and tools from fields such as social science, economics, epidemiology, engineering, environmental science, biology, statistics, toxicology, and chemistry. In practical terms, this suggests that strong applications will likely bring together teams and methods capable of linking exposure science (what people are exposed to and when), mechanistic or toxicological understanding (how those exposures can cause biological change), and population or community-level analysis (how real-world conditions and social determinants shape exposure patterns and health impacts). Projects that treat the environment as an interconnected system, rather than a set of separate silos, are aligned with the intent of the program.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary EPA funding opportunity (CFDA 66.509) offered as grants and/or cooperative agreements, indicating that EPA may have substantial involvement in certain projects depending on the award mechanism and the nature of the work. The opportunity number is EPA-G2017-STAR-D2. The anticipated maximum award amount is $600,000 per award, and the EPA expected to make about 5 awards under this call. The opportunity was created on December 5, 2016, with an original closing date of March 2, 2017, with applicants instructed to consult the full announcement (especially Section IV) for submission procedures and any detailed due date requirements. Eligibility is listed as "Others," with the specific eligible applicant types clarified in the announcement text under the additional eligibility information section.

Overall, this opportunity is designed to push early career investigators toward next-generation approaches for understanding life-long health effects of chemical exposures in realistic, multi-stressor settings. The EPA is looking for research that can better capture the combined roles of where people live, the physical and ecological conditions around them, and the social and economic pressures they experience, and then translate that complexity into models or assessment tools that improve causal inference and ultimately inform environmental health decisions.

• The Environmental Protection Agency in the environment sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Early Career Awards: Using a Total Environment Framework (Built, Natural, Social Environments) to Assess Life-long Health Effects of Chemical Exposures" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 66.509.
• This funding opportunity was created on Dec 05, 2016.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 02, 2017 Please refer to the announcement, including Section IV, for additional information on submission methods and due dates.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $600,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 5 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for EPA G2017 STAR D2

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: