Dr. Guy Iverson, who serves as principal investigator, submitted 1 pre-proposal and 1 letter of intent for research funding, which were both selected to move forward to full proposals.

Dr. Iverson and colleagues submitted a pre-proposal to the UNC System Inter-Institutional Planning Grant (IPG) Program. This pre-proposal was chosen to move forward to a full proposal for the 2019-2020 funding cycle. Priority research areas eligible for funding from IPG this year included: health sciences; agriculture; water and the environment; advanced manufacturing; marine and coastal sciences; defense, military, and security; pharmacoengineering; energy; and data science. This program focuses on building capacity in research areas that are strategically important to North Carolina, with the ultimate goal of incentivizing collaboration among diverse institutions and disciplines to increase the likelihood of securing additional external funds to support research. This project consists of faculty with expertise in environmental and public health, environmental modeling, geological sciences, hydrogeology, geophysical analysis, soil science, microbiology, STEM education and outreach, and social science and policy. Dr. Stephen Moysey (Dept. Geological Sciences; Water Resources Center) serves as a co-Principal Investigator and Drs. Sinan Sousan (Dept. Public Health; NC Agromedicine Institute), Charles Humphrey (Dept. Health Education & Promotion; Environmental Health Sciences Program), Michael O’Driscoll (Dept. Coastal Studies; Water Resources Center), Ariane Peralta (Dept. Biology), Steven Wolf (STEM Collaborative for Research in Education; Physics), Samantha Mosier (Dept. Political Science), Christopher Osburn (Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, NCSU), and Jay Levine (Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, NCSU) serve as investigators. Out of the 10 pre-proposals from ECU that were submitted to the IPG Program, Dr. Iverson and colleagues’ pre-proposal were 1 of 2 that were selected for full proposal.  The other selected pre-proposal was submitted by Dr. Melissa Cox (Dept. Health Education & Promotion) and colleagues. The full proposal was submitted on September 3, 2019 and the project duration is 1 year.

Moreover, Dr. Iverson and colleagues were invited to submit a full proposal to the NC Department of Justice Attorney General’s Office through the Environmental Enhancement Grant (EEG) Program. The EEG Program funds a wide variety of projects, including: 1) land acquisitions including conservation easements; 2) data collection, research, planning, or education; and 3) construction, remediation, or restoration work. EEG’s mission is to protect impaired, degraded, or endangered surface waters. Dr. Iverson and colleagues aim to quantify and quality environmental and social benefits of capping systems for biogas generation at an animal feeding operation. The team consists of Drs. Charles Humphrey, Michael O’Driscoll, and Stephen Moysey (co-PIs); as well as ECU’s Drs. Sinan Sousan, Ariane Peralta, Natasha Bell, and Samantha Mosier and NCSU’s Drs. Christopher Osburn and Jay Levine (investigators). The full proposal was submitted on September 24, 2019 and the project duration is 2 years.