The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) paid for a quantitative research experiment with graphene-based sensors containing transistors. The semiconductor transistors measure voltage drops and radiation absorption. The transistors may be used at national borders and ports to detect and measure radiation. At Penn State University, the Radiation and Science Engineering Center, Breazeale Nuclear Reactor Building is available for research studies. The Navy conducts extensive qualitative sensing and actuating material studies at the Penn State University International Center for Actuators and Transducers. International qualitative studies of human interaction with robots at Penn State investigate human understanding for future robotic development.
President Obama's remedy for chronically substandard schools with high dropout rates, low graduation rates and few graduates that go to college is recruiting, developing and retaining effective teachers. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funds multimillion dollar efforts to improve the quality of instruction. The United States Department of Education funds quantitative research topics at the Washington State Center for Education Data and Research into the effect of teacher effectiveness on student achievement in mathematics. Sharon Flake wrote "Begging for Change" to express intercity high school students need to learn and improve their futures. Sharon Flake's qualitative research project educates millions of people.
The Eastern European Education, Culture and Multilingualism and Youth Agency allocated 9 million euros ($12,540,780) for advancing Eastern European culture through 2013. Eastern European Calls for Tender and the federal grants wire fund both qualitative and quantitative research topics in Eastern European countries, culture, geography and politics by qualified graduate students. The U.S. Department of State allocates $4.2 million annually for the Study of Eastern Europe and the Independent States of the former Soviet Union to strengthen American firsthand expertise and build and strengthen relationships among the U.S., Russia and other Eastern European countries in all fields of endeavor.
Ethanol is clean high octane fuel refined from agricultural products. A diverse energy portfolio from dedicated energy crops will produce 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022. A quantitative cost benefit analysis of the production of biofuels includes the creation of jobs and wages, reduction in import prices and an increase disposable household income in the United States. The U.S. Department of Energy predicts that the rising costs of imported oil are greater than the cost of ethanol production. The Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy and the Department of Environmental Quality all offer grants to fund qualitative and quantitative research studies in renewable energy, biomass or the economic development of the agricultural cluster. Studies of entrepreneurial agricultural clusters are qualitative topics.