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Research Project Proposals:
Requirements, Submission Process, and Forms
Principal investigators may apply for research project funding support from NWRI, which typically funds 2-6 new projects a year. NWRI-supported research projects have budgets ranging from $20,000 to $100,000 a year.
Please note that the graduate students of principal investigators currently receiving funding for a research project from NWRI are ineligible to receive an NWRI Fellowship.
NWRI does not have a specific deadline for pre-proposal or proposal applications. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
Update as of April 2017 - NWRI is not accepting pre-proposals or applications at the moment.
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Requirements
1) Research Area
Research projects must fall under the following categories:
- Water Quality Assessment: Projects focus on treatment processes, including the lifecycle of product waters, biological and chemical contaminants, tracking, development of devices to monitor quality, and associated security issues.
- Treatment and Monitoring: Projects focus on (1) water and wastewater treatment and management, or (2) future directions for the development of community water supplies and wastewater systems.
- Knowledge Management: Projects designed to gather, translate, and distribute/incorporate water-science information to better understand and employ water development, management, and protection efforts and decision-making processes.
- Exploratory Research: Projects focus on new concepts for creative, non-traditional approaches to advance the water industry.
Click here to read summaries of NWRI's current research projects.
2) In Kind Contributions
- In-kind contributions, including matching funds, are required on a one-to-one basis. For example, if NWRI awards the research project $20,000 each year for 2 years, then the principal investigator must provide in-kind support to match or exceed the annual $20,000 award.
- Principal investigators are encouraged to solicit additional funding support from other sources, including water and wastewater utilities, regulatory agencies (such as the state or federal Environmental Protection Agency), and other federal agencies (e.g., Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Geological Survey). Some projects have private sector partners as well.
3) Review & Evaluation
- NWRI continues to fund projects based on adequate progress, as determined by the NWRI Research Advisory Board (RAB) at project review meetings.
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Therefore, once funding is awarded, the principal investigator is required to attend 1-2 RAB meetings each year that funding is received to update the RAB on the progress of the research project.
See the calender of upcoming events for dates and locations of RAB meetings.
4) Final Report
All principal investigators are required to provide NWRI with a final report upon completion of their research project. This report will then be edited and made available to download on NWRI's website at www.nwri-usa.org/e-publications.
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Submission Process
The processing time for research proposals takes about 2-6 months.
The principal investigator first submits a pre-proposal to NWRI describing the concept of the research and an estimated budget.
The pre-proposal will then be reviewed by the appropriate NWRI subcommittee(s).
If the pre-proposal is approved, the principal investigator will be invited to submit a full research project proposal.
The research project proposal is reviewed by the RAB at a project review meeting. The principal investigator must attend and present on the proposal at the review meeting.
If the RAB review is favorable, the RAB will make a recommendation for funding to the NWRI Board of Directors.
Once funding is approved, the project will commence once a funding agreement has been executed.
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Application Forms
The following forms are available to download as a Word Document (.doc) that you can directly fill out. If you have trouble downloading either of these forms, please contact NWRI at (714) 378-3278 for assistance.
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Pre-Proposal
Please note that all prospective principal investigators must first submit a pre-proposal to NWRI to attain permission to submit a research project proposal.
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Research Project Proposal
Principal investigators may submit a research project proposal only after receiving approval from NWRI. Instructions for filling out the Research Project Proposal may be downloaded here.