Mass Spectrometry for Atmospheric Monitoring

About this funding opportunity

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Mountain view in Boulder, CO. Photo credit: Devyn Narkchareon

Mountain view in Boulder, CO. Photo credit: Devyn Narkchareon

Info Mass Spectrometry for Atmospheric Monitoring

Link to Request for Proposals

Download Full text of Request for Proposals here

Program Overview

The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation is requesting proposals for a grant opportunity for the development of new instrument designs to bring the most advanced mass spectrometry detection capabilities and sensitivity levels into a lightweight, inexpensive, and easily operated system that could be portable or deployed on airborne platforms, in unattended monitoring stations, or operated by citizen scientists, for long-term analysis of the chemical composition of the atmosphere. The intent of this program is to support scientists, with a focus on undergraduates, to become inventors and innovators in this compelling area of research by building tools and instruments. Miniaturizing mass spectrometers has been an active area of research for many years, and it is timely to advance such prototype designs for broader applications for mobile monitoring. If successful, these prototype monitoring systems could have a lasting impact on informing policy decisions on sources of pollution, improving indoor and outdoor air quality, and furthering the democratization of access to clean air around the world.

The Foundation is requesting proposals to build novel mass spectrometer instruments with performance equivalent to current laboratory instruments that could operate on a wide range of ground-based and/or airborne platforms with minimal user expertise. Program teams must be based within a university or non-profit research institution with the ability to engage undergraduate students in research. The program team should include active participation from undergraduate students, with graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and staff members from a mix of disciplines (e.g., chemistry, atmospheric sciences, engineering) as well as the technology transfer, commercialization, and administrative offices, as appropriate for the proposed program and institution’s resources.

The Foundation will provide support of up to $1 million per selected team over a 3-year development and testing program at awarded Institutions, which can be used flexibly to purchase materials for several prototype systems, consumables for testing, full-time support for undergraduate students to participate in the program, part-time support for other personnel, which could include research staff, graduate students and/or postdoctoral fellows, support for industry collaborations, and/or training courses or experiences for participating students. Applicant institutions must demonstrate their commitment for additional funding beyond the $1 million support from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, if necessary, to complete the objectives of the program described below. The Foundation does not provide support for overhead or indirect costs. Additional information on the technical proposal, allowable program costs, budget format, and institutional support requirements can be found in the instructions in the online application portal.

Proposal Details

Proposals should be centered around addressing the performance needs for a specific use case, for example, but not limited to, on an airborne sampling platform, or in a ground-based sensor suite, or in a citizen scientist field sampling kit. Table 1 in the Full Text of the Request for Proposals provides several performance parameters for mass spectrometry systems, with threshold and objective metrics that span a range of use cases. Proposals should justify the desired performance for each parameter depending on the specific selected use case. The proposal should include an initial design concept that would meet the desired form factor and performance of the final instrument, including…

Topic areas: Energy and Environment, General and Cross-cutting R&D, Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences.

Funding amount

This grant provides Varies in funding.

Deadline

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis; there is no single fixed deadline.

Who can apply

This opportunity is open to the following applicant types:

• Not specified by the program.

Eligibility

The program did not publish a separate eligibility statement. See the official opportunity page for the full eligibility criteria.

Agency

Mass Spectrometry for Atmospheric Monitoring is administered by Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation (Beckman), listed via Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation.