Desalination and Water Purification Research Program Pitch to Pilot | R21AS00424

Opportunity Information: Apply for R21AS00424

The Bureau of Reclamation is offering funding under its Desalination and Water Purification Research (DWPR) Program "Pitch to Pilot" opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number R21AS00424) to help move promising water-treatment ideas out of the lab and into real-world pilot testing. The program is aimed at research and development that delivers broad public benefits and has national significance, especially in cases where private companies cannot reasonably shoulder the full cost and risk of development on their own. At its core, the opportunity is about making impaired, brackish, or otherwise unusable water sources more practical to treat and reuse by lowering treatment costs, reducing energy use, and minimizing environmental impacts. It is positioned as supporting wider federal priorities tied to water reuse and water security, and it is explicitly aligned with Executive Order 14008 on climate action by investing in advanced treatment technologies that can expand usable water supplies and improve resilience to drought and long-term climate pressures.

The NOFO focuses on developing innovative and disruptive technologies or processes that can be demonstrated at pilot scale. Reclamation is looking for projects that can show meaningful advances in one or more of these areas: reducing the cost, energy requirements, and/or environmental impacts of treating impaired or unusable water to meet requirements for a clearly identified beneficial use; improving overall treatment efficiency through better pre-treatment, post-treatment, monitoring sensors, or other novel process improvements; improving reverse osmosis (RO) or nanofiltration (NF) concentrate management in ways that reduce cost, energy demand, and/or environmental burdens; treating brackish groundwater using approaches that are less energy-intensive than conventional methods; and addressing the cost, energy, and environmental challenges of seawater desalination, including issues associated with intake and outfall systems. In other words, this is not just about making membranes slightly better; it is also about the harder system-level problems such as concentrate disposal, process monitoring and control, and the parts of desalination that drive environmental permitting and long-term operating costs.

A key feature of this opportunity is that it targets pilot-scale testing rather than benchtop research. Eligible projects must involve pilot-scale technologies or processes operating at flow rates above one gallon per minute, and they must be tested using natural water sources rather than synthetic or laboratory-prepared feed water. The intent is to generate credible, practical evidence about technical performance and operational realities, and to help applicants determine technical, practical, and economic feasibility under real conditions. Applicants are expected to be able to develop preliminary estimates for both capital costs and operations and maintenance costs, which signals that Reclamation wants projects to produce decision-ready information that utilities, districts, and other end users can use to judge scalability and deployment potential. The application should clearly explain what is unique and disruptive about the technology or process, whether the novelty lies in the underlying technology itself, how it is integrated into a treatment train, or the way it is being tested and validated at pilot scale.

The award instrument for this opportunity is a cooperative agreement under the Science and Technology and other Research and Development activity category (CFDA 15.560). The posted award ceiling is $200,000, and the opportunity was originally announced with a closing date of 2021-06-03 (with a creation date of 2021-04-15), which is important for anyone checking whether a similar or updated solicitation is currently open. Reclamation also notes that questions about applicant eligibility, project eligibility, and application review can be directed to dwpr@usbr.gov, which is the main point of contact provided in the announcement.

Eligibility is broad and includes individuals and entrepreneurs, institutions of higher education, commercial or industrial organizations, private entities, state and local governmental entities, federally funded research and development centers, Tribal governments and organizations, and nonprofit organizations. The source data also lists common applicant categories such as state, county, city or township governments, special districts, federally recognized Tribal governments, 501(c)(3) nonprofits (other than higher education), private institutions of higher education, individuals, for-profit organizations (including small businesses), and other eligible entities. Federal governmental entities and foreign entities are not eligible, and the notice indicates there may be additional ineligible categories beyond those examples.

Applications can be submitted through several channels: by mail, express delivery, courier services, or through Grants.gov using the Workspace process. Submissions through Grants.gov must be made by individuals who are registered and active in SAM and who have Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) status, which is a common federal requirement but can take time to set up if an organization is not already registered. Overall, this funding opportunity is designed to help bridge the gap between promising research concepts and deployment-ready solutions by funding pilot demonstrations that use real water, realistic operating conditions, and early-stage cost information, with the broader goal of expanding affordable, energy-efficient, and environmentally responsible water treatment and desalination options in the United States.

• The 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 Pitch to Pilot" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.560.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-04-15.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-06-03. (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 $200,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, Individuals, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

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