EPA’s www.epa.gov Environmental Information Exchange Network (EIEN) www.epa.gov/exchangenetwork an internet-based system used by states, tribal, and territorial partners is sharing environmental and health information with one another and with EPA.
The EIEN provides accurate environmental information, reduces the costs associated with reporting data, improves data access for environmental professionals, and enables decision-making on environmental and health issues.
The Exchange Network Grant Program provides funding to states, territories, and recognized Indian tribes to support EIEN www.epa.gov/exchangenetwork/exchange-network-grant-program. Since FY 2001, EPA has awarded about $200 million to build the EIEN. All 50 states, five territories, and 87 federally recognized tribes have received grants to develop and implement the EIEN.
Each fiscal year, EPA expects to award about $10 million to about 40 to 50 EIEN projects with awards for each project anticipated to be up to $500,000. The number of awarded grants will depend on the final amount of EPA’s appropriation for the program and the number of applications submitted.
EPA’s National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) supports EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment by applying innovations to exposure science. For more information, go to www.epa.gov/about-national-exposure-research-laboratory-nerl.
NERL brings cutting edge research and technology to the field of exposure science and is specifically involved in:
- Developing analytical/monitoring methods to refine, or evaluate tools to quantify, measure, or sample stressors in the environment
- Preforming research on indicators/indices of exposure to determine how to combine measurements, data and /or models that describe or characterize the state or change of exposure
- Performing exposure/dose process characterization plus data analysis to study exposure in the real world
- Developing decision support tools to assemble data and develop this information into a useable format for analysts and decision-makers
- Developing predictive modeling to evaluate and apply statistical models including data on personal exposure to the environment
- Developing environmental forensics tools to apply real-world instances to identify sources and pathways for exposure
NERL headquartered in Research Triangle Park (RTP) in North Carolina has an in-house workforce of more than 310 scientists, engineers, and staff across three divisions in four locations including RTP, Cincinnati, Athens Georgia, and Las Vegas.