Center for Early Lifestage Vulnerabilities to Environmental Stressors | EPA G2020 STAR E1

Opportunity Information: Apply for EPA G2020 STAR E1

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), through its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, offered a discretionary grant opportunity to establish a single research center focused on early lifestage vulnerabilities to environmental stressors. The core goal of the center is to strengthen scientific understanding of how cumulative exposures during critical early periods of life, including prenatal development, infancy, and childhood, may contribute to adverse developmental and mental health outcomes. EPA is specifically looking for work that goes beyond simple correlation by improving the ability to evaluate potential causal relationships, while also accounting for modifying factors that can increase or reduce risk.

A major emphasis of the opportunity is on the combined impact of both chemical and non-chemical stressors. Chemical stressors can include environmental contaminants and pollutants, while non-chemical stressors can include social, behavioral, and contextual factors that influence health and development. EPA is interested in research that treats these exposures as cumulative and interacting rather than isolated, reflecting real-world conditions where children and families experience multiple simultaneous pressures. The center is expected to examine how these combined exposures operate during sensitive windows of development and how they may shape longer-term outcomes.

The developmental outcomes highlighted in the announcement span cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and neurological domains. Examples include attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), reductions in IQ, obesity, diminished self-regulation, anxiety and depression, attention and memory problems, and even structural changes in the brain. In practice, this means the center would be expected to connect exposure patterns and stressor profiles to measurable indicators of developmental health, using strong study designs and evidence integration approaches to clarify what is driving observed effects and which populations may be most vulnerable.

A defining feature of the grant is its explicit call for novel, quantitative, and potentially transformative methods to integrate data across disciplines. EPA is seeking approaches that can bring together evidence and measurements from epidemiology, toxicology, exposure science, risk assessment, public health, social science, and environmental science into a coherent analytical framework. This could include new statistical, computational, or modeling strategies that allow researchers to merge different data types, handle mixtures of exposures, represent non-chemical stressors quantitatively, and evaluate cumulative risk in ways that are more realistic and decision-relevant. The expectation is not only to develop these methods, but also to demonstrate them in ways that show they can work with real multidisciplinary datasets and can improve inference about causes and mechanisms.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity was posted by EPA under Funding Opportunity Number EPA G2020 STAR E1, with assistance listing CFDA 66.509 and an activity category of Environment. It supported one expected award, with an award ceiling of $1,900,000. The announcement was created on August 28, 2020, and the original closing date was November 12, 2020, with additional submission and eligibility details referenced in Section IV of the full announcement. Eligibility is summarized broadly as "Others," with clarification to be provided in the announcement text, which typically means applicants needed to consult the official eligibility language to confirm whether their institution type and proposed consortium structure qualified.

In plain terms, this grant was designed to fund one highly collaborative, cross-cutting center that can connect environmental exposures early in life to later developmental harms, while also pushing the field forward methodologically. The intent is to produce integrated, policy-relevant science that can better inform how cumulative risks to children are assessed and ultimately reduced, especially when both environmental pollution and social or contextual stressors are part of the picture.

• The Environmental Protection Agency in the environment sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Center for Early Lifestage Vulnerabilities to Environmental Stressors" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 66.509.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 28, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Nov 12, 2020 Please see Section IV of the announcement for additional submission information.. (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 $1,900,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for EPA G2020 STAR E1

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