80 FR 55373 - Announcement of Requirements and Registration for the NIEHS Climate Change and Environmental Exposures Challenge

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
National Institutes of Health

Federal Register Volume 80, Issue 178 (September 15, 2015)

To assist the country in preparing for the potential health risks from climate change, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through the National Institute on Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is sponsoring the NIEHS Climate Change and Environmental Exposures Challenge (the ``Challenge'') under the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010. This Challenge calls on talented software developers, data scientists, and other innovators from around the country to create data visualizations, tools, and applications that use the best available science on environmental exposures and the relationship of these exposures to increased temperature, precipitation, flooding, and sea level rise. The Challenge has two goals: To raise awareness of how environmental health risks may be exacerbated by climate change in communities, and to enable protective decision-making from local to national levels.

[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 178 (Tuesday, September 15, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55373-55376]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2015-23126]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

National Institutes of Health


Announcement of Requirements and Registration for the NIEHS 
Climate Change and Environmental Exposures Challenge

    Authority: 15 U.S.C. 3719.

SUMMARY: To assist the country in preparing for the potential health 
risks from climate change, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) 
through the National Institute on Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) 
is sponsoring the NIEHS Climate Change and Environmental Exposures 
Challenge (the ``Challenge'') under the America COMPETES 
Reauthorization Act of 2010. This Challenge calls on talented software 
developers, data scientists, and other innovators from around the 
country to create data visualizations, tools, and applications that use 
the best available science on environmental exposures and the 
relationship of these exposures to increased temperature, 
precipitation, flooding, and sea level rise. The Challenge has two 
goals: To raise awareness of how environmental health risks may be 
exacerbated by climate change in communities, and to enable protective 
decision-making from local to national levels.

DATES: The Challenge begins September 15, 2015.
    (1) Submission period begins 9 a.m. EDT September 28, 2015.
    (2) Submission period ends 12 p.m. EDT December 4, 2015.
    (3) Judging Period: December 7, 2015 to January 6, 2016.
    (4) Winners Announced: January 12, 2016.

ADDRESSES: To register for this Challenge, participants can access 
either the http://www.challenge.gov Web site (search for the 
Challenge's title) or the Climate and Health Innovation Challenge 
Series Web site at http://www.challenge.gov/agency/health-and-human-services/climate-and-health-innovation-challenge-series/.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John Balbus, M.D., M.P.H., Senior 
Advisor for Public Health, National Institute of Environmental Health 
Sciences, Phone 301.496.3511. [[email protected]]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Communities currently face risks from 
hazardous wastes and deposits of industrial chemicals, air pollution, 
harmful algal blooms and toxic contaminants in food, and exposures to 
pesticides. While the impacts of climate change on many of these 
environmental health risks are not well understood or addressed at 
present, newly released data and tools, in combination with other 
publicly available datasets, allow for innovative approaches to 
identifying, demonstrating and assessing those risks. Protective 
decisions at the local level may include siting of schools, day care 
centers, new housing, or critical infrastructure such as new water 
intakes for drinking water systems; design or siting of urban waste 
water drainage or green infrastructure; placement of monitoring 
equipment or other sensors; or other permits or regulations. 
Nationally, protective decisions about prioritizing remediation efforts 
or other interventions, or setting national standards or policies may 
be informed by greater understanding of the influence of climate change 
on the magnitude and spatial distribution of potential environmental 
exposures.
    Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Section 402 of the Public Health 
Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 285, the general purpose of the National 
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is the conduct and 
support of research, training, health information dissemination, and 
other programs with respect to factors in the environment that affect 
human health, directly or indirectly. Supported by the NIEHS, the 
Challenge furthers the Institute's statutory authority by advancing 
research to understand the potential health risks from climate change. 
This Challenge aligns with both the mission of NIEHS to ``discover how 
the environment affects people in order to promote more healthier 
lives'' as well as elements of the Institute's 2012-2017 Strategic 
plan, including:
    Goal 5: Identify and respond to emerging environmental threats to 
human health, on both a local and global scale (https://www.niehs.nih.gov/about/strategicplan/).
    Subject of the Challenge: The Challenge calls on talented software 
developers, data and exposure scientists, public health students and 
professionals, and other innovators to produce a data visualization or 
visualization tool or application (each a ``submission'') to help 
convey potential risks of environmental exposures in the United States 
that may be exacerbated by climate change. Submissions may be produced 
using existing tools and platforms or created with newly developed 
applications. The geographic scale can be as small as the neighborhood 
or community level or as large as the regional or national level. 
Prizes will be made available in two categories according to the scale 
of the submission; one for state level or smaller, one for multi-state 
or national.
    Submissions should help identify potential areas or zones of 
increased exposure and/or the degree of changes in exposure or health 
risk resulting from climate change. Participants may consider a short-
term time scale (e.g., 0 to 20 years) for impacts associated with 
extreme events, or a longer time scale (e.g., 2050 or beyond) for 
impacts associated with sea level rise or other phenomena whose 
greatest impact will clearly be decades from now. These exposures may 
include:
    (1) Toxic chemicals released from hazardous waste, mining or other 
industrial sites by rising sea level, increased temperatures and 
permafrost melting, changes in wind patterns, or other climate-related 
ecological processes;
    (2) air pollutants, including ozone and particulate matter, that 
may increase or decrease in concentration in certain regions because of 
increased temperatures and changing weather patterns;
    (3) toxins created by molds or waterborne bacteria or algae;
    (4) pesticides, whose usage or dispersion patterns may be 
influenced by changes in climate.
    Participants in the Challenge may also propose environmental 
exposures not listed here. If a participant wishes to explore a 
different environmental exposure, the submission should include a 
statement explaining the importance of the exposure to human health and 
the relationship between climate change and changes in that exposure in 
the future.
    This Challenge is most interested in submissions that show the 
interaction between these three data layers:
    (1) Locations and concentrations of harmful agents (i.e., 
exposures);
    (2) locations of potentially exposed populations; and
    (3) geographic and climatologic parameters conveying changing risks 
of exposure.
    At a minimum, all submissions should include a data layer related 
to location of potential harmful agents and a data layer related to 
changes in levels of exposure to those potential agents cause by 
factors related to climate change.
    Potentially useful datasets can be found at climate.data.gov and on 
the Climate and Health Innovation Challenge Series Web site (http://www.challenge.gov/agency/health-and-human-services/climate-and-health-innovation-challenge-series/). Participants are also encouraged to seek 
out additional scientifically valid datasets for their submissions.
    Participants in the Challenge should specify the target audience 
for their submission. Potential target audiences include local public 
health and environmental officials, clinical health professionals, 
urban planners, emergency preparedness and response officials, and the 
general public.

Rules for Participating in the Challenge

    (1) To be eligible to win a prize under this Challenge, an 
individual or entity--
    a. Shall have registered to participate in the Challenge under the 
rules promulgated by the NIEHS as published in this Notice;
    b. Shall have complied with all the requirements set forth in this 
Notice;
    c. In the case of a private entity, shall be incorporated in and 
maintain a primary place of business in the United States, and in the 
case of an individual, whether participating singly or in a group, 
shall be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States 18 years 
of age or older;
    d. May not be a Federal entity;
    e. May not be a Federal employee acting within the scope of the 
employee's employment and further, in the case of HHS employees, may 
not work on their submission(s) during assigned duty hours;
    f. May not be an employee of the NIH, a judge of the Challenge, or 
any other party involved with the design, production, execution, or 
distribution of the Challenge or the immediate family of such a party 
(i.e., spouse, parent, step-parent, child, or step-child).
    (2) Federal grantees may not use Federal grant funds to develop 
their Challenge submissions unless use of such funds is consistent with 
the purpose of their grant award and specifically requested to do so 
due to the Challenge design, and as announced in the Federal Register.
    (3) Federal contractors may not use Federal funds from a contract 
to develop their Challenge submissions or to fund efforts in support of 
their Challenge submission.

[[Page 55375]]

    (4) Submissions must not infringe upon any copyright or any other 
rights of any third party.
    (5) By participating in this Challenge, each individual (whether 
competing singly or in a group) and entity agrees to assume any and all 
risks and waive claims against the Federal government and its related 
entities (as defined in the America COMPETES Act), except in the case 
of willful misconduct, for any injury, death, damage, or loss of 
property, revenue, or profits, whether direct, indirect, or 
consequential, arising from participation in this Challenge, whether 
the injury, death, damage, or loss arises through negligence or 
otherwise.
    (6) Based on the subject matter of the Challenge, the type of work 
that it will possibly require, as well as an analysis of the likelihood 
of any claims for death, bodily injury, property damage, or loss 
potentially resulting from Challenge participation, no individual 
(whether competing singly or in a group) or entity participating in the 
Challenge is required to obtain liability insurance or demonstrate 
financial responsibility in order to participate in this Challenge.
    (7) By participating in this Challenge, each individual (whether 
competing singly or in a group) and entity agrees to indemnify the 
Federal government against third party claims for damages arising from 
or related to Challenge activities.
    (8) An individual or entity shall not be deemed ineligible because 
the individual or entity used Federal facilities or consulted with 
Federal employees during the Challenge if the facilities and employees 
are made available to all individuals and entities participating in the 
Challenge on an equitable basis.
    (9) By participating in this Challenge, each individual (whether 
participating singly or in a group) and entity grants to the NIH an 
irrevocable, paid-up, royalty-free nonexclusive worldwide license to 
post, link to, share, and display publicly on the Web the submission. 
Each participant will retain all other intellectual property rights in 
their submissions, as applicable.
    (10) NIH reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to (a) cancel, 
suspend, or modify the Challenge, and/or (b) not award any prizes if no 
submissions are deemed worthy.
    (11) Each individual (whether participating singly or in a group) 
or entity agrees to follow all applicable federal, state, and local 
laws, regulations, and policies.
    (12) Each individual (whether participating singly or in a group) 
and entity participating in this Challenge must comply with all terms 
and conditions of these rules, and participation in this Challenge 
constitutes each such participant's full and unconditional agreement to 
abide by these rules. Winning is contingent upon fulfilling all 
requirements herein.
    Registration Process for Participants: To register for this 
Challenge, participants can access either the http://www.challenge.gov 
Web site (search for the Challenge's title) or the Climate and Health 
Innovation Challenge Series Web site at http://www.challenge.gov/agency/health-and-human-services/climate-and-health-innovation-challenge-series/
    Amount of the Prize: There will be two prize categories, one for 
data visualizations, tools or applications at the regional (multi-
state) or national level, and one for data visualizations, tools or 
applications at the local or municipal level, with a grand prize, 
second prize, and third prize available for each category. Each 
category may award up to $17,500 in prizes (total prize amount 
available is $35,000) to the best overall projects in that category, 
based on the established judging criteria. For each category:
Grand Prize--$10,000
Second Prize--$5,000
Third Prize--$2,500
The Award Approving Official will be Linda S. Birnbaum, Ph.D., 
D.A.B.T., A.T.S, Director, National Institute of Environmental Health 
Sciences.
    Payment of the Prizes: Prizes awarded under this Challenge will be 
paid by NIEHS by electronic funds transfer and may be subject to 
Federal income taxes. HHS/NIH/NIEHS will comply with the Internal 
Revenue Service withholding and reporting requirements, where 
applicable.
    Basis upon Which Winners Will Be Selected: The judges will evaluate 
submissions based upon the following criteria: scientific validity, 
innovative use of data and visualization tools or applications, and 
clarity of presentation. In order for submissions to be evaluated, they 
must include clear, detailed processes on how they were produced, 
including any code if applicable. The processes can be submitted in a 
text document. More details on the specific judging criteria and the 
judging panel can be found on the Challenge Web site.
     34% Scientific validity--associations between exposures 
and climate change phenomena must be scientifically credible.
     33% Innovative use of data and visualization tools or 
applications--creative selection of datasets and ways to display data 
overlays; inclusion of new ideas and types of data.
     33% Clarity--depiction of vulnerability and risk easily 
understood to a general public audience.
    In order for a submission to be eligible to win this Challenge, it 
must meet the following requirements:
    1. Submission: The following items constitute a complete submission 
for this Challenge: A short (less than 250 words) description of the 
visualization and its value in improving our understanding of the 
relationship between environmental exposures and climate change; a 
detailed description of the visualization, tool, or application, 
including the technical basis for combining data layers and references 
to the scientific literature supporting the relationships between 
climate change, altered exposures, and human health outcomes where 
relevant (limited to 1000 words, not including figures or references); 
the visualization tool and any application or code needed to run the 
tool; instructions on how to install and operate any application behind 
a visualization tool; system requirements required to run the 
application; and a description of, rationale for selecting, and 
complete copy of the data set. For data sets contained within 
climate.data.gov or otherwise easily obtainable from federal sources, 
the URLs for the datasets are sufficient. Alternatively, instead of 
providing the tool or application itself, participants may provide 
either a link to a visualization generated by the tool or application; 
a video demonstrating the tool or application; or one or more pdfs of 
example visualizations.
    2. Participants must provide continuous access to any submissions 
that include web postings through the Challenge period until January 
12, 2016.
    3. Challenge submissions must be submitted via the Challenge's 
homepage on challenge.gov.
    4. Submissions must be in English.
    5. The tool or application must not use HHS's or NIH's logos or 
official seals in the submission, and must not claim or imply 
endorsement by the Federal government.
    6. The data visualization tool or application must be designed for 
use with existing web, mobile, voice, or other platform for supporting 
interactions of the content provided with other capabilities.
    7. A submission may be disqualified if the visualization tool or 
application fails to function as expressed in the description provided 
by the participant, or if the tool or application provides inaccurate 
or incomplete information.

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    8. Submissions must be free of malware. Participant agrees that NIH 
may conduct testing on the visualization tool or application to 
determine whether malware or other security threats may be present. 
NIEHS may disqualify the submission if, in NIEHS' judgment, the 
visualization tool or application or any other part of the submission 
may damage government or others' equipment or operating environment.
    Additional Information: To help the public understand the health 
implications of climate change and improve the nation's ability to be 
resilient to negative impacts, HHS has organized the Climate and Health 
Innovation Challenge Series. This Challenge Series spotlights the over 
150 climate and health data sets that have become available via the 
Climate Data Initiative, while also identifying and promoting 
additional relevant data sets. The Challenge Series will include 
challenges aimed at one or more of the following goals:
    1. Create appealing applications that empower the public to take 
action by providing information about climate change's impacts on 
health or about the potential health benefits of personal actions to 
reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
    2. Create climate change and health decision support tools for 
health professionals and, potentially, other professionals (e.g. urban 
planners).
    3. Empower the academic and technology communities to analyze data 
in innovative ways, moving research forward in key areas (products may 
range from data visualizations to useful indices/metrics to adopt).
    4. Challenge the private sector to combine government data with 
their own data to develop innovative decision support tools or address 
research questions.

    Dated: September 4, 2015.
Linda S. Birnbaum,
 Director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
[FR Doc. 2015-23126 Filed 9-14-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4140-01-P