Urban Integrated Field Labs (IFL) | DE FOA 0002581

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - Urban Integrated Field Labs (IFL)

What is the Urban Integrated Field Labs (IFL) funding opportunity?

The Urban Integrated Field Labs (IFL) opportunity is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science research grant solicitation within the Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program, Earth and Environmental System Sciences Division. It focuses on strengthening basic science needed to better predict climate and environmental conditions in urban areas.

What is the main purpose of an Urban Integrated Field Laboratory?

The core purpose is to build a coordinated, place-based research effort that treats an entire urban region as a complex, coupled system. The work is meant to improve fundamental understanding of how urban atmosphere, land surface, water, ecosystems, infrastructure, and human activity interact, and how predictable those interactions are under climate variability and extremes.

How does this opportunity define an "urban region"?

For this solicitation, an urban region is more than a dense population center. It includes interconnected environmental, ecological, infrastructure, and human components that influence one another across the urban landscape.

What kinds of cities is DOE especially interested in for this program?

DOE is specifically interested in cities located in climate-sensitive settings and in places where conditions vary sharply across neighborhoods. Examples of contrasting geographic contexts mentioned include coastal environments, arid regions, mountainous terrain, plains settings, or Great Lakes-adjacent cities.

What does "urban heterogeneity" mean in this funding call?

Urban heterogeneity refers to the real patchwork nature of cities, where neighborhoods can differ substantially due to landforms, vegetation, built infrastructure, local environmental processes, population density, and socioeconomic patterns. The solicitation emphasizes that these differences can strongly shape uneven exposures and impacts.

Why is climate sensitivity and uneven neighborhood impacts emphasized?

The notice highlights that unevenness matters most when it drives unequal impacts, especially for disadvantaged communities. Projects are expected to generate improved scientific insight and predictive capability that reflects these neighborhood-scale differences rather than relying on overly smoothed regional averages.

What types of research activities are expected in an Urban IFL project?

The solicitation anticipates comprehensive, integrated projects that combine field observations (on-the-ground and in-situ measurements), data assimilation (ingesting observations into models), modeling across relevant scales, and model-data fusion (tight coupling of measurement and simulation). It also signals that uncertainty quantification and advanced data analytics are required elements.

What is meant by "model-data fusion" in the context of this program?

As described in the opportunity, model-data fusion is the tight coupling of measurements and simulations to improve understanding and prediction in urban systems, using observations to inform and refine models in an integrated way.

Does the program require uncertainty quantification?

Yes. The solicitation points to modern uncertainty quantification as a required element, indicating that proposals should not only generate predictions but also characterize confidence, error sources, and limitations.

Is the opportunity focused on basic research or applied implementation?

Based on the description provided, the program is a research grant solicitation focused on strengthening basic science for predicting urban climate and environmental conditions, with an emphasis on improved understanding and predictability of coupled natural-human systems.

How is equity addressed in the goals of this opportunity?

The opportunity emphasizes that science should be positioned to inform equitable solutions by illuminating uneven risks and benefits across different communities in the urban landscape, particularly where impacts fall disproportionately on disadvantaged communities.

Do applications need to be multi-institutional?

Yes. Applications must be multi-institutional and must center on developing a single Urban Integrated Field Laboratory.

Can DOE fund more than one Urban IFL under this call?

Yes. DOE may fund multiple IFLs, and it intends the portfolio to span different types of urban systems and stressors so that the set of awards broadens national understanding across multiple urban archetypes.

What does DOE mean by building a "portfolio" of IFLs?

DOE indicates it wants the overall set of funded IFLs to cover a range of urban systems and stressors, potentially differing in demographics, climate-driven pressures affecting people and infrastructure, and geographic contexts (such as coastal, arid, mountainous, plains, or Great Lakes-adjacent settings).

What is the award ceiling listed for this opportunity?

The opportunity record lists an award ceiling of $25,000,000.

Which DOE office and program is sponsoring this opportunity?

This is a DOE Office of Science opportunity, within the Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program, Earth and Environmental System Sciences Division.

Is this a discretionary grant or another type of award?

The opportunity record describes it as a discretionary grant under the DOE Office of Science.

What is the CFDA number for this opportunity?

The opportunity record lists CFDA number 81.049.

When was the opportunity posted and what was the original application deadline?

The record indicates it was posted March 23, 2022, with an original application deadline of June 16, 2022.

Who is eligible to apply?

Eligibility is described as broad for domestic applicants, with one specific exclusion related to certain nonprofit organizations (see the ineligibility FAQ below). The notice also includes special participation rules for federally affiliated entities such as national laboratories, FFRDCs, and federal agencies.

Are any organizations explicitly ineligible?

Yes. The opportunity states that 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations that have engaged in lobbying activities after December 31, 1995 are not eligible.

Can DOE/NNSA National Laboratories participate?

Yes. DOE/NNSA National Laboratories can apply as leads or be included as subrecipients. If funded, their work is handled through DOE mechanisms (the DOE Field-Work Proposal System) under their existing lab contracts rather than through the standard administrative terms used for typical grantees.

Can non-DOE/NNSA FFRDCs or other federal agencies participate?

Yes, but with restrictions. Non-DOE/NNSA Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and other federal agencies generally cannot serve as the lead institution or be treated as subrecipients under another organization. Instead, they participate as team members and submit their own applications as part of a multi-institutional team led by an eligible non-federal institution, with funding typically routed via interagency agreements.

Does each application need to focus on multiple cities or can it focus on one?

The solicitation states that applications must center on developing a single IFL, which implies the project is organized around one coordinated, place-based urban research effort.

What is the long-term vision for the IFLs created under this program?

The program aims to create deeply instrumented, model-connected urban research testbeds that advance foundational Earth system science in cities and directly address uneven exposures and vulnerabilities experienced by urban residents under climate trends and extreme events.