EPA Offers up to $80,000 to Communities to Develop Air Sensor Data Best Practices

The challenge is open until October 28

The Smart City Air Challenge encourages communities to install hundreds of air quality sensors and manage the resulting data. EPA is offering two communities up to $40,000 each to work with their residents to crowdsource air quality data and share it with the public online. The projects will give individuals a role in collecting the data and understanding how environmental conditions affect their health and their community.

• ·         Application Deadline: October 28, 2016
• ·         Announcement of Winners: Around December 1, 2016
• ·         Initial award: Up to $40,000 each to two communities to deploy air sensors, share data with the public, and develop data management best practices from sensors
• ·         Additional funding: Up to $10,000 each to the winning communities in 2017 based on their accomplishments and collaboration

Air quality sensors are becoming less expensive and people are beginning to use them to measure pollution levels in their neighborhoods and homes. They?re developing rapidly, but most sensors aren?t ready for regulatory use. However, by networking these devices, communities can better understand what is happening at the local level. Communities will figure out where to place the sensors and how to maintain the devices. It?s up to each community to decide what pollutants they want to measure.

The prize funds serve as seed money, so communities will need to partner with other parties, such as sensor manufacturers, data management companies and universities. These partners can provide resources and expertise in topics where communities lack experience. In doing so, communities will learn how to use data analytics, which can be applied to other aspects of community life.

Please spread the word. For more information, visit the Smart City Air Challenge website and our blog post. You can also write to Ethan McMahon or smartcitya...@epa.gov.