Blueprint Biosecurity is seeking proposals across three technical areas to build the evidence base on the safety of human exposure to far-UVC light
Expression of Interest Deadline
August 28, 2026
All technical areas in this group share this deadline. Submit to safe-uvc@blueprintbiosecurity.org by 11:59 PM ET.
Far-UVC, which is typically emitted at 222 nm, is a promising tool for reducing concentrations of infectious airborne pathogens in occupied indoor spaces. When ventilation and filtration alone cannot achieve the desired levels of infectious aerosol reduction, far-UVC may serve as a complementary air treatment technology.
Research to date has demonstrated its ability to inactivate a wide range of pathogens, while its limited penetration into the outermost layers of the skin and eyes suggest it may be suitable for use in occupied indoor spaces. However, additional research is needed to better understand the safety of continuous exposure in the built environment.
This group funds the cross-cutting work that underpins far-UVC safety across different settings, from the effects of exposure over years to how much light actually reaches human tissues in real spaces. Results from these Technical Areas will improve our understanding of the real-world conditions that are critical for deploying far-UVC safely.
We invite Expressions of Interest from groups to investigate the following Improved General Characterization Technical Areas:
We welcome submissions from teams with expertise in photobiology, ophthalmology, dermatology, occupational health, photochemistry, dosimetry, indoor air quality, and related fields.
For applicants interested in advancing this work but without prior experience in far-UVC, we will make reasonable efforts to arrange relevant expert support if they are selected for an award.
The strongest evidence for far-UVC safety comes from acute and short-duration studies. Long-term data is limited: Yamano et al. (2020) provides 66 weeks of chronic animal exposure with no observed harm, and Sugihara et al. (2024) extends to 36 months of human observation but with only four participants, doses constrained to the pre-2022 ACGIH limit (23 mJ/cm² over 8 h), and a single clinical setting. Given that far-UVC is proposed for daily use over extended durations, the absence of chronic human exposure data at scale, at post-2022 ACGIH limits, and across a broader endpoint panel is a significant remaining gap for regulatory bodies, policymakers, and the broader public. A long-duration safety study would provide the strong evidentiary foundation necessary for regular, multi-year use in occupied spaces.
As this study may take years to generate meaningful results, starting it as soon as possible is critical. Notably, this study could take place in parallel with a far-UVC pilot installation, be embedded within any ongoing far-UVC research study, or be co-located with another ongoing far-UVC installation. Proposers are encouraged to consider these structures.
Expected funds available for entire Technical Area: $2,000,000
Current safety testing tends to look at the best-understood form of UV damage, but far-UVC light could affect cells in other ways that have received less attention. Most UV safety assessment has focused on DNA damage via the generation of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) and 6-4 photoproducts. As far-UVC is strongly absorbed by peptide bonds in proteins, it has been proposed that this interaction may produce different types of cellular damage that are not captured in current testing. Potential biological effects – including oxidative stress, double-strand DNA breaks, lipid peroxidation, and protein oxidation – have been less thoroughly characterized in the current far-UVC literature. A study of a broader biomarker panel inclusive of these targets would provide a more complete safety picture to evaluate far-UVC exposure.
Expected funds available for entire Technical Area: $500,000
Current far-UVC installation standards (UL 8802, ANSI/IES RP 27.1-22) assess compliance as if a person stands at the worst possible position in a room, staring directly at the light source, for eight continuous hours. Though the underlying ANSI standard recommends time-weighted averaging to account for real occupant behavior, current installation safety assessments do not yet incorporate time-weighted averaging, resulting in a compliance framework that is likely more conservative than the underlying guidance intended (Welch et al. 2025).
In practice, real-world exposure is likely much lower: people move through rooms; sit, stand, and spend time in different locations; and receive additional eye shielding from anatomical features such as eyebrows, eyelashes, and blinking. A manikin study (Duncan et al., 2023) found that only ~5.8% of the maximum dose recorded on the manikin’s head, nose, and lip actually reached the eye surface from ceiling-mounted fixtures – and that manikin had no eyelids, eyelashes or eyebrows to further attenuate ocular-surface exposure.
If new safety research identifies a concern at a particular tissue exposure level, the practical impact depends entirely on how that tissue-level finding translates into real world installation requirements. Comprehensive dosimetry studies across realistic deployment scenarios would simultaneously increase safety confidence and establish the empirical basis for updating installation standards to reflect actual human behavior rather than theoretical worst cases. We welcome creative and innovative proposals to better quantify the dose in real-world installation scenarios.
Expected funds available for entire Technical Area: $500,000
Applicants interested in this work are required to submit an EOI summarizing their proposed approach. We encourage applicants to propose creative, rigorous methods for achieving the study objectives and to clearly explain how their approach will generate decision-relevant results. We prefer proposals that can reasonably achieve their stated deliverables within 24 months or less. Technical Area 1, which involves a multi-year human exposure study, is an explicit exception, as a longer timeline is inherent to the work.
All EOI submissions should be emailed to safe-uvc@blueprintbiosecurity.org.
Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the stated deadline.
Format and length:
Whether or not you use the provided template, your Expression of Interest must include:
Following the review of EOIs, selected applicants will receive a Notice of Recommendation and be invited to submit a Full Proposal within three weeks of notification.
A Full Proposal will consist of a technical section and a cost section. Templates and additional guidance will be provided to selected applicants.
Please email all administrative, technical, and contractual questions to safe-uvc@blueprintbiosecurity.org. Questions about this program that are not sent to this email may not be replied to. All questions must be in English, and must include the name, email address, and telephone number of a point of contact.
When we determine that a response would be helpful to all parties interested in the RFP, we may post the question and answer in a public FAQ on our website. Questions may be paraphrased as needed to protect applicant information.