Desalination and Water Purification Research Program for Fiscal Year 2018 | BOR DO 18 F002

Opportunity Information: Apply for BOR DO 18 F002

The Desalination and Water Purification Research (DWPR) Program for Fiscal Year 2018 is a discretionary federal funding opportunity from the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation. Issued as Funding Opportunity Number BOR DO 18 F002 (CFDA 15.506), it uses a cooperative agreement as the funding instrument, which typically means the Bureau of Reclamation expects to be actively involved during the project period rather than acting only as a passive funder. The announcement was created on February 27, 2018, with an original application closing date of May 1, 2018.

The main purpose of the FOA is to solicit cost-shared research proposals from a broad range of organizations, including private industry, universities, water utilities, and other research sponsors (with eligibility clarified in the full announcement). The projects are expected to align with the DWPR program goals and objectives, which generally center on advancing desalination and water purification technologies to improve water supply reliability, treatment performance, and overall feasibility for real-world use.

The FOA splits applications into two funding groups based on the maturity and scale of the proposed work. Funding Group I focuses on laboratory-scale projects. These are typically bench-scale studies that operate at small flow rates, defined here as less than 2 gallons per minute. The intent at this stage is to explore whether a new concept is viable before larger investments are made. Projects might evaluate a novel treatment process, test new materials (such as membranes, sorbents, or coatings), or examine modifications to existing processes. Because the work is early-stage, the program explicitly recognizes that laboratory projects often carry higher risk and uncertainty, which is common when attempting to prove feasibility or identify critical technical barriers.

Funding Group II covers pilot-scale projects, which are larger demonstrations meant to test a novel process under more realistic operating conditions. These projects are intended to answer practical questions that lab tests cannot fully resolve, such as operational stability, maintenance demands, integration with existing treatment trains, and overall economics. The FOA notes that pilot studies are generally preceded by laboratory work that has already shown the technology functions as intended, whether that earlier work was funded by DWPR or by other sources. In other words, pilot proposals are expected to build on prior proof-of-concept results and push the technology closer to implementable practice by evaluating technical performance, practicality, and cost considerations at a meaningful scale.

In terms of funding size and anticipated reach, the FOA lists an award ceiling of $400,000 and an expectation of about 15 awards. Overall, this opportunity is structured to move promising desalination and water purification ideas through a pipeline: early, higher-uncertainty bench research (Group I) and later, more applied and feasibility-focused pilot demonstrations (Group II), with applicants contributing cost share and working collaboratively with the Bureau of Reclamation.

• The Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Desalination and Water Purification Research Program for Fiscal Year 2018" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.506.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 27, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 01, 2018. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $400,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 15 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for BOR DO 18 F002

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