The purpose of this announcement is to stimulate RD&D to decarbonize the entire life cycle of Water Resource Recovery Facilities (WRRFs), formerly known as Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs). It targets both individual unit processes at earlier stages of technological development, and entire treatment trains at higher levels of technological readiness. It seeks to address both direct and indirect emissions from WRRFs, with the complementary goal of reducing costs, particularly in energy usage and sludge management, to improve the probabilities of real-world adoption.

As described in Section I.B.ii, this FOA is explicitly targeted at the widespread adoption and deployment of GHG reduction solutions at WRRFs, in the full understanding that costs will be a key element in such adoption. The vast majority of these deployments would take place at Water Resource Recovery Facilities (WRRFs). Thus, participation from WRRFs (and optionally engineering firms that tend to design and build actual installations) is essential. The specific eligibility requirements vary slightly by topic area.

For both topic areas, applicants are encouraged to propose project teams that include partnerships from a variety of eligible organizations and organization types. Such project team members may include, but are not limited to, public water systems, waste producers or haulers, and project development teams that otherwise meet the eligibility requirements listed below.

For both topic areas, nonprofit organizations described in section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 that engaged in lobbying activities after December 31, 1995 are not eligible to apply for funding.