Indoor Air and Climate Change
URL: http://www.epa.gov/ncer/rfa/2014/2014_star_indoor_air.html
Open Date: 10/23/2013 – Close Date: 01/23/2014
Here are some of the important details:
Summary: EPA announces an extramural funding competition designed to support research that improves understanding of how climate change affects human health through indoor air quality as adapted by building designs and uses.
Proposals should explore the relationship linking health effects to combinations of building and climate characteristics. A priority is the
evaluation of existing guidelines for building system design or for weatherization to adapt buildings to a changing climate, against empirical
evidence of health effects related to ventilation, or at least against ventilation models and findings.
In addition, applicants may choose to address one or both of the following optional research areas:
– Characterization of behavioral modifications and changes in population
time-activity patterns in response to changing climate conditions that
would result in altered exposures to existing or anticipated agents,
in both indoor and outdoor environments. Changes in the use of
buildings are especially of interest, such as patterns of use of
natural (e.g. windows) vs. mechanical ventilation, or use of air
conditioning.
– Extension of existing building ventilation models to consider multiple
building types and newer, more energy efficient designs (e.g. LEED,
Net Zero), or evaluation of existing models of building ventilation
using independent data sets. In either case, it is crucial to
understand how these models would perform when buildings operate under
future climate scenarios that differ from their design tolerance.
It is important that proposed research in any of the above areas be developed with explicit consideration of populations at risk (vulnerable or susceptible).