Atlanta, Georgia, February 1, 2022: Additional Ventures is partnering with Ocean Visions and a consortium of philanthropic funders to announce the Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) Research Award. We invite concise pre-proposals from scientific teams describing a multi-year research agenda to systematically assess whether OAE can safely, permanently, and cost-effectively sequester atmospheric CO2 at scale.
In 2020 and 2021, Ocean Visions convened experts from around the world to develop a research and development agenda for ocean-based carbon dioxide removal (CDR), given its high potential to capture significant amounts of CO2 and help restore our climate and ocean. Our road maps outline the key research, testing, and evaluation of approaches that is needed.
The OAE Research Award marks the launch of the Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement R&D Program, an ambitious effort to accelerate understanding of OAE as a potential method for large-scale CDR.
Ocean Visions is partnering with Additional Ventures to disseminate the RFP and facilitate expert technical evaluation of submitted proposals, drawing on the broad and diverse expertise amongst its Network members and partners. This R&D program aligns fully with priorities outlined in the Ocean Visions ocean-based CDR road maps.
To learn more about the RFP and apply, visit the Research Award page.
The RFP in a nutshell
At this stage, we seek concise pre-proposals outlining a multi-year research agenda to answer key scientific questions on whether and how OAE approaches can safely and permanently sequester atmospheric CO2 at scale. Pre-proposals should clearly articulate the highest priority questions facing the testing and development of OAE approaches, such as the range of suitable alkalinity sources; effective pathways of alkalinity deployment; the environmental impacts (beneficial and adverse) over the range of relevant spatial and temporal scales; and quantification of the net amounts and long-term stability of the CO2 removal. Pre-proposals should also describe the full observational, experimental, and modeling expertise and capacity needed to do this.
Pre-proposals will be reviewed by a committee of qualified experts convened by Ocean Visions. We anticipate that a subset of submissions will be invited to submit a full proposal following that review. A full proposal framework process will be provided at that time.
Scale of the Effort: If Additional Ventures determines that a full proposal merits funding, the anticipated award is projected to be at least $10M over 5 years. No more than 1 project will be funded in this RFP.
Deadline for pre-proposals: February 25th, 2022
All potential applicants are invited to join an informational webinar on February 10th at 4PM GMT / 11AM EST / 8AM PST to hear more about the OAE Research Award or ask questions about the RFP process.
Context
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggests that even aggressive measures to reduce CO2 emissions will have to be complemented with carbon dioxide removal (CDR) on the order of 100–1000 billion tons of CO2 before the end of the 21st century to avert the worst consequences of climate change.
There are many potential ways to clean up atmospheric and oceanic CO2, and among the most promising are those that build on natural processes occurring in the ocean. The ocean already safely stores more carbon than any other part of the biosphere and through biological and geological processes has the potential to contribute even more to removing and safely storing carbon.
Given the accelerating pace and scale of climate disruptions, and the danger of surpassing critical ecological tipping points, it is imperative to scale up the research and testing of various ocean-based CDR approaches—including ocean alkalinity enhancement.
Additional Ventures’ R&D program aims to accelerate knowledge and understanding on whether there are environmentally responsible ways to deploy ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) at scale.
Philanthropic Partners
