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P3 Award: A Student Design Competition for Sustainability
P3 is a partnership between the public
and private sectors to achieve the mutual goals of economic prosperity
while protecting the natural
systems of the planet and providing a higher quality of life for its
people. The P3 competition will provide grants to teams of college students
to research, develop, and design sustainable solutions to environmental
challenges. P3 highlights people, prosperity, and the planet – the
three pillars of sustainability – as the next step beyond P2
or pollution prevention.
Targeting Sustainability
EPA and its 40 partners from
industry, NGOs, and other government agencies, offer this student
design competition to respond to the
scientific and technical challenges in moving towards the goal of
sustainability.
The P3 Award Competition has two phases: initially teams compete
for $10,000 P3 grants. Recipients use the money to research and
develop their projects during the academic year. Then in spring
2005, the P3 grant recipients will be invited to Washington, D.C.
to compete for the P3 Award which conveys additional funding for
further design development and implementation.
Challenges from a wide range of categories will be considered.
These include: agriculture (irrigation practices, storage and handling
of food products, etc.); built environment (green buildings; transportation
and mobility; smart growth, etc.); ecosystem (protection of ecosystem
health; protection of biodiversity, etc.); materials and
chemicals (materials conservation; inherently benign materials and chemicals
through green engineering, green chemistry, biotechnology; recovery
and reuse of materials through product, process, or system design;
renewable, bio-based feedstocks, etc.); energy (energy production;
energy distribution; energy conservation; inherently benign energy
through green chemistry, green engineering, biotechnology, etc.);
resources (delivery of and access to educational, medical, information,
etc.); water (water quality, quantity, conservation, availability,
and access, etc.). Challenges related to population growth and
medical care, while important, are not included in this competition
(other than the delivery or distribution systems of knowledge,
goods, and supplies).
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Fostering Partnerships
The P3 Award is directed at undergraduate and/or graduate teams
in colleges, universities, and other post-secondary institutions
in the US. Interdisciplinary teams including representatives from
multiple engineering departments and/or departments of chemistry,
architecture, industrial design, business, economics, policy, social
science, and others are strongly encouraged.
Teams are also strongly encouraged to develop partnerships within
their educational institution and with industry, Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs), government, and the scientific community
for guidance, research and development, contributions, and implementation
strategies.
The competition is designed to provide flexibility for creativity,
allowing interdisciplinary teams of students to define a scientific
or technical challenge to sustainability; relate the challenge
to people, prosperity, and the planet; and develop a design approach
to address the challenge.
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Application and Selection Process
Application procedures and materials will be found at http://es.epa.gov/ncer/rfa/ in
early January. Applications to compete for the P3 Award will
be evaluated by a peer review panel based on the following criteria:
problem definition; innovation and technical merit; connections
to sustainability (people, prosperity, and the planet); measurable
results, evaluation method, and implementation strategy; and
integration of competition as an educational tool. Final selections
will be
made by EPA.
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The P3 Award Competition
The P3 Award competition was initiated in 2004 with the award
of 66
design project grants. EPA will again support up to 50 student
design
projects from around the country during the 2005 - 2006 academic
year.
In spring 2006, teams will be invited to bring their designs
to Washington, D.C. to compete for the P3 Award. The National
Academies will convene a panel to judge the competition. Winners
of the P3 Award will be eligible for additional funds from EPA
to match contributions from industry or non-governmental
organizations to help further develop the design, implement the
project in the field, and move the design to the marketplace.
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