The Climate Intervention Environmental Impact Fund is pleased to announce applications for its grant program to support environmental impact analysis (EIA), predictive impact modeling, and engagement efforts with potentially impacted stakeholders for innovative climate intervention technologies that are on the verge of field testing.
They will consider supporting those elements for any technology proposed by qualified investigators with the potential to be scaled-up to meaningful climate benefits except for stratospheric (or higher) Solar Radiation Management (SRM) because of its severe controversiality, questionable governability, and the availability of other funding for it. They also exclude Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) and Direct Air Capture (DAC) due to other existing large funding programs.
CIEIF does not provide any basic research or implementation funding; they only give grants to aid the analysis of proposed field tests. The analysis should include environmental and, if applicable, any economic, social, and/or human health impacts that foreseeably may flow from the project. Other factors being equal, the highest priority for funding projects will be for nonprofit institutions, including academics. Applications from private business projects embarking on a climate intervention field test will be considered. The reach of potential grants is global; however, international projects will be higher priority if a non-profit U.S. partner exists to accept the grant as a donation. They only support projects for which the results will be documented either by journal publication or through some other peer-reviewed report. Work supported by CIEIF should not be seen as an alternative to necessary government compliance and permitting, rather it should aim to complement and support the necessary governmental processes.
Funding Information
CIEIF will provide three grants with increased award amounts of $75,000 each.
Funding Criteria
Selected applicants will dialogue with CIEIF personnel about the expert consulting needs that their proposed field test presents as far as EIA and/or impact modeling and/or outreach to potentially impacted stakeholders. Consultation may include confidential discussions on technical, siting, legal, and permitting issues. After scoping discussions are complete, the applicants will receive the initial third of their $75,000 grant upfront. The second and third payments will be disbursed on a schedule to be negotiated that reflects benchmarks associated with the project. Repeated annual funding will be possible.
There will be no direct contractual relationships between CIEIF and any outside consultants. CIEIF staff will be available to grantees for occasional advice and consultation about progress of the grants. Grantees will need to agree to be identified on the CIEIF website and to credit CIEIF on their websites.
Applicants Criteria
Applicants should write a grant request that demonstrates how they would spend $75,000 usefully on EIA, predictive impact modeling, and/or engagement efforts with potentially impacted stakeholders – from local communities to government agencies – for their proposed climate intervention field test. If your application does not focus on at least one of those three elements it will be quickly rejected.
A major criterion in selecting applicants will be their willingness to publish their results either in a peer-reviewed journal or as a report with outside peer review that is not published in an established journal. One purpose of CIEIF will be to hold up the supported papers and reports as models for future climate intervention field tests. They recognize that CIEIF may need to be flexible in terms of the timing of such publications depending on the grantee’s situation as far as obtaining permits for the field test, enhancing social license, obtaining implementation funding, and other factors.
