AEPA
EPA-190-B-10-003
FY 2011-2015 EPA Strategic Plan
Cross-Cutting Fundamental Strategy: Advancing Science, Research, and Technological
Innovation
Advance a rigorous basic and applied science research and development agenda that informs,
enables, empowers and delivers innovative and sustainable solutions to environmental
problems. Provide relevant and robust scientific data and findings to support the Agency's
policy and decision-making needs.
The major challenges we face to human health and the environment are not incremental problems, and
they do not lend themselves to incremental solutions. EPA will promote innovative solutions to
environmental problems that reduce or eliminate pollution while avoiding unintended and/or unwanted
consequences, addressing pollutants, chemicals, and materials throughout their life cycle from raw
material to final disposition.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has reiterated the critical and timely need for innovation
in science and technology, building on the President's Strategy for American Innovation. [1][2] OMB
identifies priorities that include new approaches to multi-disciplinary research, new approaches for
accelerating technology commercialization and innovation, interagency and international collaborations,
and better communication with the public on science, technology, and innovation.
Environmental sustainability is a guidepost for science, research, and technological innovation at
EPA.[3] Sustainability is a broader approach to environmental protection that considers trade-offs in
production processes and materials use. Sustainable solutions prevent chemicals from entering the
environment or eliminate, rather than simply reduce, the production of waste through better materials
management.
EPA must help drive high quality research, sound science, and technology innovation to sustainably
address air quality, climate change, water quality and quantity, unreasonable risks from toxic
chemicals, ecosystem degradation, and other environmental issues. EPA will inform, enable, and
stimulate the development of sustainable solutions to current and future challenges because
sustainable and innovative environmental solutions can also be more economically efficient.
EPA science and research must always inform the decisions that are essential to the protection of
human health and the environment and empower the broader community that supports our mission. To
address challenging environmental problems in this manner, EPA research will:
1. Provide timely, responsive, and relevant solutions: EPA's science, research, and technological
innovation depend on partnerships and a continuing dialogue with internal and external partners
and stakeholders to ensure that EPA efforts focus on the highest priority problems faced by the
Agency and the nation. Building on traditional collaboration efforts, EPA will also leverage the
scientific discoveries of others to achieve even more responsive solutions to the environmental
problems that our communities face.
2. Transcend traditional scientific disciplines: A broad perspective—one that integrates
knowledge from a wide variety of sources—is key to developing sustainable solutions. In all
aspects of our work, from problem identification, to research design and conduct, to implementation
and adoption of solutions, EPA must rely on diverse disciplines. Environmental problems often
raise complex scientific and technological issues that require non-traditional approaches. If EPA is
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to advance progress on these challenging problems, we must rely on integrated, trans-disciplinary
research that complements traditional, single-discipline approaches.
3. Communicate widely and openly: Great work, done invisibly, cannot have an impact. To
maximize the impact and utility of our research, EPA will communicate the design, definition,
conduct, transfer, and implementation of the work we do. We will translate our science so that it is
accessible, understandable, relevant to, and used by stakeholders and the general public. EPA
must document our successes to maximize the value of our scientific work.
4. Catalyze sustainable innovation: EPA's efforts alone will not be enough to address the
environmental challenges our nation faces. As we develop and promote these technology
innovations, EPA must account for life-cycle perspectives and support technologies that fully
consider environmental and social impacts, and collaborate with partners in academia, government,
and industry to assess impacts and promote effective product stewardship. EPA must also guide
sustainable solutions on the path from conceptual and proof-of-concept stages, through research
and development, to commercialization and deployment. EPA must understand and engage the
marketplace to ensure the effectiveness of these solutions. Additionally, EPA must be receptive to
external innovations in science, research, and technology that can enhance EPA's effectiveness in
fulfilling our mission.
End Notes:
[1] OMB Memorandum M-10-30, July 21, 2010. "Science and Technology Priorities for the FY2012
Budget." Available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2010/m10-30.pdf.
[2] Press Release from the White House Office of the Press Secretary, September 21, 2009.
"President Obama Lays Out Strategy for American Innovation." Available at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the press office/President-Obama-Lays-Out-Strategv-for-American-
Innovation/.
[3] Information on the EPA Sustainability Program is available at http://www.epa.gov/sustainability/.
FY 2011 Action Plan: Advancing Science, Research, and Technological Innovation
This Action Plan lists the specific actions that EPA will carry out in FY 2011 to achieve the goals of the
Strategy for Advancing Science, Research, and Technological Innovation as described in the FY 2011-
2015 EPA Strategic Plan. Annual Action Plans will be developed for each year of the Plan.
1. Plan and implement research programs through close partnerships among EPA offices, partners,
and external stakeholders (Supports Principles 1 and 4).
• Address the research needs identified by EPA offices, partners, and external stakeholders by:
developing and implementing a research plan on the impact of hydraulic fracturing on drinking
water; issuing a competitive Request for Applications (RFA) on validating air monitoring
methods and new technologies; issuing an RFA on green sustainable water infrastructure;
initiating new research efforts to develop next-generation tools that support implementation of
the Agency's Endocrine Disrupter Screening Program (EDSP); and publishing findings on the
detection, measurement, exposure effects, and environmental applications of nano-sized
particles in environmental media.
• Identify the barriers to developing sustainable solutions to high priority environmental problems
in collaboration with the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) and other State and local
partners. Recommend science and technology solutions that can aid in overcoming those
barriers.
• Conduct an inventory of water and air monitoring technologies developed and funded by other
federal agencies that may be appropriate for environmental application.
• Select two pending regulatory actions and conduct a technology opportunity and market
assessment, to begin developing a framework for such assessments as part of the Action
Development Process (ADP).
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• Conduct a retrospective analysis of the technology cost of selected rulemakings to estimate the
actual costs of developing and deploying new environmental technologies.
• Identify which of the more than 50 regional innovation initiatives funded by other federal
agencies focus on technology innovation with environmental relevance, and develop actions for
EPA to support these to speed the development and utilization of new technologies that may
significantly lower environmental impacts by engaging a wide range of stakeholders, including
technology developers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and economic development organizations.
2. Support and promote technologies and methods that scrutinize environmental and human health
impacts from the beginning to the end of the technology life-cycle (Supports Principles 1, 2, and 4).
• Implement a competitive program that encourages EPA scientists and engineers to develop
integrated trans-disciplinary research projects and partnerships with entrepreneurs, universities,
and other research institutions.
• Convene a meeting to engage external stakeholders and private markets and to communicate
emerging opportunities for environmental technology and product innovation that support EPA's
regulatory agenda.
• Utilize the EPA Futures Community of Practice to evaluate emerging issues and technology
innovations to inform Agency planning and achieve the Administrator's priorities.
• Launch a challenge prize for technology innovation and work with key partners to catalyze
international innovation adoption of key environmental technologies.
• Leverage the technology and innovation insights of the Environmental Finance Advisory Board,
which provides advice to the Agency on "how to pay" questions for environmental protection.
Seek advice to advance the most promising technology and financing innovations.
• Establish an EPA Senior Environmental Technology Officer (SETO) to coordinate environmental
technology-related issues across the Agency.
3. Communicate the design, definition, conduct, transfer, and implementation of research and
technological innovation so that it can be understood readily and used by stakeholders (Supports
Principle 3).
• Launch the "Impact Initiative," which gathers and communicates information on the results of
EPA's research, to better inform the public on the impact of EPA's research on public policy,
human health, and the environment. Fully implement GEMS (Great Environmental Moments in
Science) to highlight important advances in environmental science realized through EPA
research.
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