FY27 Guidelines for Brownfield Revolving Loan Fund Grants
EPA will fund eligible government organizations, federally recognized Tribes, and 501(c)(3) nonprofits to capitalize a brownfield revolving loan fund that makes cleanup loans and subgrants for hazardous substance and/or petroleum brownfield sites.
RESTRICTED TO: STATE LOCAL GOV · TRIBAL ENTITIES · NONPROFITS
⚑ 20% cost share required · applicants must not have an open Brownfields RLF cooperative agreement and cannot be a non-lead coalition member on one · award is a cooperative agreement · at least 50% of the total award amount (EPA funds plus cost share) must be used for loans and associated eligible programmatic costs
This is an EPA service-delivery/grant-capitalization program for brownfield cleanup implementation, not a social-science, survey, policy, or evaluation study. The team might study environmental risk or community acceptance around brownfields, but they would not plausibly pursue this as PI-level research funding.
JUDGED AGAINST THE ROSTER'S PUBLICATION DOSSIER · GPT-5.4-MINI · 2026-11-03
Unit fits — one characterization, each unit's own rules
| IPPRA | 40 partial | portfolio topic: environment (primary); signature methods: community engaged, policy analysis; social/behavioral work is none; funds service delivery, not research (capped); university can only partner, not lead; capped at 40 (non-research funding) |
| Physical Sciences & Engineering (demo) | 25 weak | technical depth: substantial; funds service delivery (capped) |
| Tom Love Innovation Hub | 10 none | deep-tech content; no commercialization signal |
Description
This notice announces the availability of funds and solicits applications from eligible entities to capitalize a revolving loan fund (RLF) to provide loans and subgrants to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites. Eligible entities include government organizations, Federally recognized Tribes, and 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations.
Please see Section 2.A. for the complete list of eligible entities. Applications must meet all threshold eligibility criteria in Section 2.B. and the 20% cost share requirement in Section 2.C. to be considered eligible to receive an RLF Grant.
RLF programs provide loans and subgrants to eligible entities to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites contaminated with hazardous substances1 and/or petroleum.2 EPA will determine site eligibility after the award of the grant throughout the project period, prior to expending grant funds at any site. Sites where hazardous substances and petroleum contamination are distinguishable must meet eligibility requirements for both contaminants. See Section 3.A.1. for RLF Grant features and Section 3.A.2. on the requirement to use 50% or more of the total award amount (EPA funds plus the applicant’s cost share) to provide loans and associated eligible programmatic costs.
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) requires applicants to provide a 20% cost share of the federal funds for RLF Grants. For example, a $1,000,000 RLF Grant awarded by EPA will require the recipient to provide a $200,000 cost share. The cost share, which may be in the form of a contribution of money, labor, material, or services, must be for eligible and allowable costs under the grant, as described in the grant regulations at 2 CFR § 200.306. See
Section 2.C. for details.
Only eligible entities that do not have, or are not a part of (i.e., a non-lead coalition member), an open cooperative agreement for a Brownfields RLF at the time of application may apply for funding under this solicitation. An “open” cooperative agreement is one in which the Period of performance, as defined in 2 CFR § 200.1, has not yet ended. The period of performance is specified in EPA’s initial or amended “Notice of Award.”
Grant recipients with an open Brownfields RLF cooperative agreement may request additional funding to capitalize their RLF program through EPA’s annual, non-competitive, supplemental funding process. Additional information on the timing, requirements, and procedures for supplemental funding requests will be available on EPA’s Brownfields RLF Website.
Eligibility
See Section 2 of the full announcement for eligibility information.
Apply
View on Grants.gov → CONTACT: Dannell Brown Grants Specialist <brownfields@epa.gov>
Proposal brief SEE AN EXAMPLE →
A one-page internal memo: fit assessment, submission requirements, document scaffold, and next steps dated back from the deadline — tailored to your project idea if you add one.
Proposal shell · Federal (generic) conventions SEE A FEDERAL EXAMPLE →
Funder-faithful document skeletons — Federal (generic)'s document set with section headings, page limits, reviewer guidance, and writing prompts; add a project idea to get [DRAFT] starter bullets. Download as .md for Word or Overleaf.