Collaborative Agreements on Air Sensor Technology Research

EPA collaborates with numerous organizations to carry out its research priorities.  Many research partnerships fall under the Federal Technology Transfer Act (FTTA) that enables EPA to collaborate on research efforts and share research materials.

Several collaborative agreements related to air sensor research are in place.

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) - MOUs are agreements between EPA and an outside organization to collaborate and communicate on an effort of mutual interest. Current organizations that EPA collaborates with through MOUs are:

• Multidisciplinary Earth System and Atmospheric Sciences Research (MESASR) Group at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, focused on research related to data validation of low-cost PM sensors.
• Carnegie Mellon University, focused on data visualization and collaboration between the university’s Environmental Sensor Data Repository (ESDR) and EPA’s REal TIme GeOspatial (RETIGO) data viewer tool.

Materials Transfer Agreements (MTAs) - MTAs are agreements between EPA and an outside organization for materials to be transferred. Several MTAs are in place supporting sensor evaluation research.

• PurpleAir LLC – provides real-time and historical PM sensor data to support air quality and air pollution health effects research and integration into EPA research applications.
• Clarity Movement Company – provides sensors to EPA for sensor evaluation

Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) - CRADAs support collaborative research between EPA and an outside entity, where EPA provides in-kind resources, such as staff time and facilities, and the outside organization can provide funding for research to take place. Organizations with EPA CRADAs that involve air sensor research are:  

• Flint Hill Resources, LLC and Molex – collaborative effort to develop an in-plant sensor network system to detect leaks so they can be fixed in a timely manner.
• Aeroqual – partnership to investigate new applications, methodologies and technologies for the low-cost measurement of outside air pollutants.