The Office of Foundation Relations is pleased to share this open call for funding from the Environmental Research & Education Foundation.
UCSC Contact: Almut Wolf | awolf2@ucsc.edu
Funder: Environmental Research & Education Foundation
Opportunity: Research Grants
Deadline: December 1, 2025
Overview
EREF grants support research that reflects EREF’s long-term strategic plan to address all areas of integrated solid waste management, with a strong focus towards research that increases sustainable solid waste management practices.
Definition of Solid Waste Used in this RFP
- Municipal solid waste (e.g., residential, commercial, institutional)
- Construction & demolition debris
- Certain industrial wastes (e.g., exploration & production waste, coal ash, batteries)
- Drilling/fracking waste (e.g., oil/gas waste)
- Renewable energy infrastructure (e.g., solar panels, wind turbines) and
- Other wastes typically managed by the solid waste industry or generated by the public not
- Included in the above items (e.g., electronic waste, disaster debris, etc.).
This definition does NOT include:
- Agricultural wastes (that aren’t handled by the waste industry),
- Mining wastes managed by the mining industry (e.g., tailings),
- Nuclear waste, and
- Land applied wastewater treatment sludge.
Pre-proposal topics must relate to sustainable solid waste management practices and pertain
to the following priority areas:
- Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- Emerging Contaminants
- Advancing Materials Circularity & Recycling
See here for projects and research previously funded by the Foundation
See here for grant FAQ.
Please see an explanation of Strategic Priorities for this RFP.
Award Amount & Terms
- Previously awarded grants have ranged from $15,000 to over $500,000 with the average grant amount in recent years being $160,000. Typical project durations are about 2 years. It should be noted that proposed research in excess of $300,000 or longer than 3 years should contain sufficient details that justify the need for the higher than average amount requested and longer project duration.
- indirect or overhead costs limited to 25% of direct costs. This also includes any overhead associated with subcontractors.
- Cost sharing is encouraged, but is not required.
Eligibility
- Principal investigators (PI) must be qualified to do the work proposed and should be experts in the subject matter referenced in the pre-proposal/proposal. Typically this would include full-time faculty at academic institutions, post-doctoral employees, and principals or senior personnel at non-academic institutions.
- Graduate students are not eligible to be principal investigators.
Pre-proposals must adhere to the pre-proposal template
Timeline
- December 1, 2025 Pre-proposal due
- March 2026 Notification if invited to full proposal
- Summer 2026 Notification of Award
Special Instructions
Please notify the Office of Foundation Relations if you are interested in applying to this opportunity (fr@ucsc.edu). For support developing your proposal, please contact the Research Development Specialist or send a request to resdev@ucsc.edu. Within the Division of Social Sciences, please contact Ashlee Tews (ashleeac@ucsc.edu).
Call sent: November 3, 2025
The Office of Foundation Relations is a unit of University Advancement. The FR team creates and maintains mutually beneficial, long-term relationships with private organizations, matching grant initiatives with educational and research programs and centers. FR supports faculty and staff to identify and approach these and other private foundations for funding, to assist in strategic positioning of the grant application, and to facilitate funder campus visits. For a list of recent funding opportunities, please visit the FR website: FR Calls for Funding.