Strategic Research Plans
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What is in the Plan?
The CARB Research Program releases multi-year Strategic Research Plans covering multiple fiscal years. The current Triennial Strategic Research Plan for fiscal years 2021-2024 describes current research efforts and outlines CARB’s highest priority research needs for these fiscal years. The research initiatives in each Plan build on past research and support the implementation and development of policies and regulations, and advance the state of the science in the areas of health, environmental justice, economics, air quality, and climate. In addition, the current Plan also includes a starting point for operationalizing racial equity in CARB research, which will be developed further through a public engagement process. The research initiatives in the Plan are developed in an open public process, in consultation with stakeholders and research partners, through public workshops, individual meetings, and other outreach efforts. The Strategic Plans are presented to the Board for approval at start of the fiscal year for the period they cover. The current Plan, as well as a 1-page summary, are available for download from this page (see below). An archive of past plans is also available.
Strategic Guidance
The research initiatives guide CARB’s annual funding of individual research projects. Projects are fulfilled through externally contracted research projects as well as in-house studies. Prior to each fiscal year, research staff present a set of proposed project concepts to the Board that align with the Plan’s research initiatives and help CARB fulfill its mission. Results from annual projects are anticipated in three to five years after a project begins.
Projects for fiscal years 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24 and earlier
The projects proposed for funding in Fiscal Year 2021-22 are contained in Appendix A of the Plan and projects proposed for funding in the Fiscal Year 2020-2021 are contained in Appendix B. Project descriptions for fiscal year 2022-2023 can be found in the first appendix of the Triennial Plan, project descriptions for fiscal year 2023-2024 can be found in the second appendix of the Triennial Plan, both found in the list of documents below. All active contracts and recently completed projects are in Appendices B and C respectively.
Public comments received between 2021 up to 2023
An additional addendum, listed in the documents below, summarizes all the public input the CARB Research Program has received throughout the annual research planning process starting in Fiscal Year 2021-2022, up to the present. It summarizes comments received through the Board Meeting public docket, through the annual comment and concept collection survey and at public meetings to decide on the final list of projects to be funded each Fiscal Year.
5-Year Strategic Research Plan for Fiscal Years 2025-2030
The CARB Research Program has initiated the public process to draft and release the upcoming 5-Year Strategic Research Plan which will cover future research needs to be funded in Fiscal Years 2025-2030. The steps for developing this plan can be summarized in two important processes happening in parallel. The main public process consists of an open public survey to collect initial research priorities and a public meeting to kick-off the survey. In parallel CARB is funding an effort to work with community-based organizations to define environmental justice related research priorities. In both processes there are opportunities for the public to engage on the research priorities that will be included in this upcoming Plan.
Dates | Public Process | Community-Centered Process |
February 2024 | Public survey opens |
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February 29, 2024 | Interactive virtual public meeting |
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March |
| First convening of community-based organization representatives |
April | Survey closes (April 16) | Second convening of community-based organization representatives |
May-July | Internal review of survey submissions |
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July |
| Third convening of community-based organization representatives – research roundtables, open to the public |
| August | Public meeting to discuss proposed 5-Year Plan research initiatives | Fourth convening of community-based organization representatives – finalize environmental justice related research priorities |
| September-November | Prepare final draft of 5-Year Plan | |
| Late 2024-Early 2025 | Release draft Plan for public review and 30-day comment period | |
| Early 2025 | Present the 5-Year Plan to the Board for approval | |
Mid-2027 | Convene environmental justice advocates and community-based organization representatives for a mid-period review of progress Update to the Board on progress |
Public Engagement Opportunities
Two upcoming opportunities for participating in research planning are submitting research ideas/concepts through the annual comment/concept collection survey and submitting a proposed long-term research priority for the strategic plan. The priority would inform projects that CARB should fund in the period covered by fiscal years 2025-2030. To suggest priorities, members of the public can use the survey link below, and select the third survey option. Examples of research priorities can be found in the Triennial Strategic Research Plan as well as in a summary of previous research initiatives, linked at the bottom of this page.
In order to attend the virtual public meeting on February 29, register for the meeting using the registration link below:
Date: February 29, 2024
Time: 3:00 to 4:30 PM PDT
Location: Zoom
Agenda
- 3:00 to 3:25 PM: Policy drivers of CARB research
- 3:30 to 4:20 PM: Interactive discussions
- Meeting attendees will be able to go into a breakout room of their choice on either health, air quality, climate, mobile sources or sustainable communities and transportation, and provide written or verbal comments and suggestions. Research staff will provide discussion prompts and various methods to provide suggestions and ideas.
- 4:20-4:30 PM: Next steps, close-out, and evaluation.