Great news! After five years of work on the Higher Education Sustainability Act (now the University Sustainability Program at the Department of Education), we finally can announce that funds are available.
Last week, the Department of Education released the FY 2010 RFP for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education's (FIPSE) $28 million Comprehensive Program competition. As Congress specified (thanks largely to the hard work of many of you), the University Sustainability Program is one of eight "Invitational Priorities" for the RFP. The Department is estimating they'll make 37 awards averaging $738,000 each. Here's the RFP link (http://www2.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/announcements/2010-2/061410d.html). Proposals are due by July 29.
Please spread the word far and wide. The more proposals submitted for sustainability projects, the higher the percentage of the $28 million that may go toward this purpose. We also need sustainability proposals to dominate the FY2010 application pool in order to clearly demonstrate to Congress that there is both a strong need and a high demand for these funds.
