Water Quality Research Foundation

About Water Quality Research Foundation

Water Quality Research Foundation centers its giving on applied water-quality research, with recent support ranging from a $93,299 research strategy project at the University of Massachusetts to $57,000 for a PFAS treatment systems study at the University of British Columbia. The pattern points to a funder that backs academic and professional research intended to improve drinking water quality, treatment performance, and the science behind water-treatment decisions. Its stated priorities include point-of-use and point-of-entry treatment, emerging contaminants, contaminant mapping and monitoring, sustainability, and public health and regulatory compliance. The foundation’s recent grants show a practical research orientation. Purdue University received $20,000 for a PFAS filter study, while the Desert Research Institute received $8,991 for a project on reducing contaminations in drinking water. Another recent award supported Paragon Corporation’s database contamination for contaminants map work. Together, these grants suggest a funder that favors projects with direct relevance to water-system operators, researchers, and public-health users, rather than broad programmatic funding. The foundation also runs request-for-proposal programs tied to specific research questions, including a detergent savings study and a regression analysis project focused on point-of-entry device efficacy.

What Water Quality Research Foundation Funds

PFAS is a clear theme in the foundation’s recent funding. It gave $57,000 to the University of British Columbia for a PFAS treatment systems study and $20,000 to Purdue University for a PFAS filter study, showing interest in both system-level treatment and device-level performance. The foundation also supports research on drinking water contamination reduction and data infrastructure. Desert Research Institute received $8,991 for reducing contaminations in drinking water, while Paragon Corporation received $7,434 for database contamination for contaminants map work. Those awards align with the foundation’s stated emphasis on contaminant occurrence mapping and monitoring. A separate priority is research on softened water and household treatment. Its active detergent savings study request for proposals is designed to replicate and expand a 2011 laundry and dishwasher study, and its research agenda includes point-of-use and whole-house treatment, emerging contaminants, regulatory affairs, and public awareness.

How Water Quality Research Foundation Gives