This NOFO is issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Office of Small Business and Civil Rights (SBCR) to fund scholarships and fellowships to Minority Serving Institutions’ (MSIs) for the exchange and transfer of knowledge and skills relevant to nuclear safety, security, environmental protection, or any other field the Commission deems critical to its mission.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announces the opportunity to apply for $9,169,076 in competitive grants for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Public Transportation on Indian Reservations (Tribal Transit) Program under Assistance Listing Number 20.509.

The purpose of this program is to encourage or enhance tribal engagement with or participation in existing Regional Ocean Partnerships (ROPs) around the country. Proposals submitted in response to this announcement must:

• support tribal activities aligned with ROP priorities, including identification of ocean and coastal priorities;
• provide opportunities for tribes to work together to define intertribal ocean and coastal management priorities and identify alignment and intersection with ROP priorities;
• enhance or create capacity for tribes to engage with and in ROP activities (e.g., webinars, meetings, workshops);
• support the development of partnerships or engagement between a tribal government and a ROP in the management of ocean and coastal resources; and/or
• increase consideration and inclusion of tribal information and knowledge (as appropriate) in regional data portals, enhance tribes’ ability to access data developed by ROPs, or to inform which data and tools are available in regional data portals.

DOE announced the availability of up to $63 million to enable state and local governments to expand battery recycling and modernize American manufacturing by making cutting edge technologies like advanced sensors and modeling more accessible to small- and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs). This funding opportunity advances next-generation tools and resources to achieve the Biden-Harris Administration’s ambitious goal of a net-zero economy by 2050 and will help revitalize and strengthen America’s global leadership in manufacturing.

Through the two Areas of Interest (AOIs), the FOA will provide approximately $63 million in support of programs by state or local government entities with the following purposes:

• AOI 1: State Manufacturing Leadership Program (SMLP)
• AOI 2: State and Local Battery Collection, Recycling, and Reprocessing Program

Recognizing that it takes significant investment to open and develop new export markets, USDA launched the $1.2 billion Regional Agricultural Promotion Program (RAPP) in 2023 in response to a bipartisan request from the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

RAPP aims to diversify and expand market opportunities for U.S. food and agricultural products beyond the traditional top customers. Instead, RAPP will focus on enhancing U.S. exports to new markets in parts of the world – including South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and others – where the middle class is growing and the desire for high-quality food and farm products is increasing. Gaining market share in these diverse and dynamic markets will help U.S. exporters better weather global shocks and better compete in an increasingly volatile global marketplace.

RAPP funds are available to U.S. agricultural trade organizations, state regional trade groups, agricultural cooperatives, and state agencies that conduct approved market development activities to expand exports, address trade barriers, and showcase American agricultural products in new and diverse markets.

Citizen science, in which individuals or organizations voluntarily participate in one or more aspects of the scientific process, is one of six NOAA science and technology focus areas.  Citizen science has a rich history within NOAA with volunteer observations contributing to our Nation’s prediction and management of weather, oceans, coasts, and fisheries for decades. NOAA supports opportunities for the public to engage with the agency’s mission and address societal needs through science, technology, and innovation. The purpose of this solicitation is to support citizen science projects that can help support federal fisheries stock assessments and climate-ready fisheries management. Funding will prioritize projects that: provide information that can supplement and/or inform stock assessments or increase understanding of current and/or future impacts of climate change on fish stocks and/or fishing communities.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $43 million in funding for projects that will advance research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) in several areas critical to the future of advanced batteries. The funding will drive innovations in low-cost electric vehicle (EV) battery electrode, cell, or pack manufacturing; improve battery safety and reduce cascading failures; and strengthen the domestic supply chain of inexpensive and abundant battery materials. This funding is aligned with strategies detailed in the U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization, which is a landmark interagency framework of strategies and actions to remove all emissions from the transportation sector by 2050, by advancing battery technologies that can power safe and efficient zero-emission EVs.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) announced the Offshore Wind National and Regional Research and Development Funding Opportunity, which will award $48.6 million for projects that address several major areas of need for offshore wind. The areas include accelerating research and development of floating offshore wind platforms; exploring innovations for fixed-bottom foundations; improving offshore wildlife protection through new monitoring technologies; expanding the reach of the domestic supply chain; advancing U.S. academic leadership in floating offshore wind; and investigating solutions to protect future infrastructure from lightning.

Despite advances in energy storage technologies, and ever-increasing numbers of deployments, several technological optimization opportunities still exist including initial pilots and demonstrations, hardware cost reductions, enhanced system performance, and demonstration of effective integration with the power grid. Improving and optimizing these areas will accelerate growth of long duration electrical energy storage deployments. As New York State’s electrification of transportation and buildings applications increases, long duration electrical energy storage solutions will become critical in meeting times of reduced renewable generation.

NYSERDA seeks to stimulate and grow long duration energy storage solutions in electrical, mechanical, chemical, and thermal-electric energy storage innovation portfolios in New York State by making up to $5.35 million in funds available. This funding is to support innovative and under-utilized long duration energy storage solutions, devices, software, controls, and other complementary technologies that decrease energy storage total hardware and installation costs, improve performance, and demonstrate integration with the power grid. Submissions must demonstrate significant statewide public benefits and quantify all energy, environmental, and/or economic impacts.

The Large-Scale Thermal program provides cost-share for design of large single building and multiple building projects, including thermal energy networks, that serve as replicable examples for significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from heating, cooling, and hot water, using approaches that are clean and resilient, minimize energy consumption, maximize energy recovery, and offer an equitable approach to building decarbonization. A large-scale thermal system uses heat pumps to move thermal energy from sources, such as the ground, surface water, wastewater, and waste heat, to provide heating and hot water to one or more buildings and to move thermal energy to sinks, such as the ground, and surface water, to provide cooling to one or more buildings.

The NYSERDA Heat Recovery Project Development Program (the “Program”) aims to animate the New York State (NYS) marketplace for heat recovery solutions by working with consulting engineers, heat recovery solution providers, building owners and operators, and other key stakeholders to develop a robust pipeline of heat recovery retrofits. To accelerate heat recovery retrofit project development, the
Program provides cost-share to applicants for two categories of activities:

• Category 1 Heat Recovery Opportunity Assessment provides cost-share for consultants to assess a property’s heat recovery opportunity by quantifying the heat that is currently rejected and analyzing its potential to be repurposed. The goal of the assessment is to inform the building owner’s decision on whether to move forward with heat recovery project design.
• Category 2 Heat Recovery Project Design provides cost-share for consultants to develop an implementation-ready, technically, and economically viable design to implement a heat recovery system in an existing property.