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For Applicants | Focus AreasMultiple Countries / Environmental Contaminants

Applicant Resources

Eligible Countries:

ASIA
  • Afghanistan
  • Bangladesh
  • Burma
  • Cambodia
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Kazakhstan
  • Kyrgyz Republic
  • Laos 
  • Nepal
  • Pakistan
  • Philippines
  • Sri Lanka
  • Tajikistan
  • Thailand
  • Turkmenistan
  • Uzbekistan
  • Vietnam
EUROPE AND EURASIA
  • Albania
  • Armenia
  • Azerbaijan
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Georgia
  • Kosovo
  • Macedonia
  • Moldova
  • Serbia
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
  • Angola
  • Benin
  • Botswana
  • Ethiopia
  • Ghana
  • Guinea
  • Kenya
  • Liberia
  • Madagascar
  • Malawi
  • Mali
  • Mozambique
  • Namibia
  • Nigeria
  • Rwanda
  • Senegal
  • Sierra Leone
  • South Africa
  • Tanzania
  • Uganda
  • Zambia 
LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN
  • Brazil
  • Colombia
  • Dominican Republic
  • El Salvador
  • Guatemala
  • Haiti
  • Honduras
  • Jamaica
  • Mexico
  • Nicaragua
  • Peru
MIDDLE EAST
  • Egypt
  • Iraq
  • Jordan
  • Lebanon
  • Morocco
  • Tunisia
  • West Bank/Gaza

Additional Criteria for Applicants:

Please see Section V of the Solicitation for General Eligibility requirements.

Objectives:


Environmental contamination of air, water, and land is a serious global challenge. One-tenth of all deaths worldwide are attributable to air pollution; 2 million tons of human, industrial, and agricultural waste are dumped into the world’s surface water daily; 59% of the world’s municipal solid waste is disposed in landfills.

PEER is seeking to support research projects focused on understanding environmental contaminants from various sources such as conflict, industrialization, urbanization, and agricultural activity and their impacts on people, the environment, and economies. Environmental contaminants may occur in water, soil, air, and food; they include, but are not limited to:
  • Metals such as lead, chromium, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury
  • Byproducts of mining operations and smelting, oil and natural gas extraction, oil refining, coal power generation, and chemical or industrial manufacturing
  • Human and urban pollutants, such as untreated sewage, garbage, landfills, and electronic waste
  • Agricultural pollutants such as fertilizer and pesticide runoff and animal wastes
  • Gaseous pollutants and particulates
  • Remnants of conflict such as buried explosives, residue from biological or chemical weapons, and other discarded munitions
PEER encourages proposals that connect their research with public health implications. Projects of interest include those focused on detecting, recycling, or reducing emission of these contaminants. Research that investigates methods of waste cleanup and recycling that could generate local income, improve agriculture, or produce clean energy are especially encouraged. Interdisciplinary research teams that are able to contribute to multiple levels and aspects of the research question(s) and that can ultimately contribute to local, community, and/or national policy changes are highly encouraged to apply.

PEER will accept proposals that incorporate novel research methods and study design, such as crowdsourcing or other citizen-science approaches. PEER will also accept social science projects that investigate the effects of environmental contamination and remediation on disenfranchised, minority, refugee, or displaced peoples or the possibilities for human behavior change. Innovative projects that look at the use of forests, oceans, wetlands, and other natural sources of absorbing and decontaminating waste will also be considered. Projects that field test novel techniques or technologies for contaminant detection, recycling, or prevention are encouraged if they are designed to help understand or remedy the effects of contamination on people, environments, or economies.