Creating solutions to pressing environmental and sustainability challenges will require input and imaginative approaches from various fields, perspectives, and disciplines. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) has identified five critical challenges we must address as a society:

• Sustainably supply food, water, and energy
• Curb climate change and adapt to its impacts
• Design a future without pollution and waste
• Create efficient, healthy, and resilient cities
• Foster informed decisions and actions

Accordingly, the ECO-CBET solicitation will support activities that confront vexing environmental engineering and sustainability problems by uncovering and incorporating fundamental knowledge to design new processes, materials, and devices from a systems-level perspective.