The Exchange Network (EN) was launched in 2002 as an intergovernmental, collaborative partnership of EPA, states, territories, and Tribes to foster better environmental management and decision-making through increased access to timely, high quality environmental information. This was achieved through a standards-based approach to facilitate environmental data sharing among EPA, states, Tribes, and territories. The framework adopted allows organizations to exchange data over the Internet regardless of the specific information technology used.

The EN continues to evolve to adapt to emerging technologies and to meet new programmatic needs. Applicants are encouraged to participate in EPA’s EN Forum which is a call that is held monthly to discuss how to improve and better use the EN services and partnerships. The Forum is open to all participants; see https://exchangenetwork.net/exchange-network-forum/.

The EPA EN Grant Program is soliciting project applications to:

• Facilitate sharing of environmental data, especially through shared and reusable services.
• Reduce burden and avoid costs for co-regulators and the regulated community.
• Streamline data collection and exchanges to improve its timeliness for decision making.
• Increase the quality and access to environmental data through discovery, publishing, outbound and analytical services so it is more useful to environmental managers.
• Increase data and IT management capabilities needed to fully participate in the EN.