Cooperative Agreement L22AC00634

The Denver Museum of Nature and Science will receive $445,352 over three years from the Institute of Museum and Library Services' Museums for America program (CFDA 45.301) to advance collections stewardship of large dinosaur bones from the Morrison Formation. The museum will repair, prepare, rehouse, and 3D scan significant specimens, including holotypes, to increase access for researchers and the public. Funding will also support purchasing 3D scanning equipment for large specimens. The project...

The Science Museum of Minnesota received a $446,424 Project Grant award from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the Museums for America (MFA) program to digitize a collection of over 8,000 fossils from the Wannagan Creek site in North Dakota. The 60-million-year-old fossils document a broad range of life from the ancient ecosystem, from fungus to primates. The project will support a temporary full-time paleontology collections assistant to photograph, rehouse, and create...

The Museum of the Rockies at Montana State University received a $502,064 Project Grant award from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the Museums for America (CFDA 45.301) program. The grant will fund the design and launch of "Discover Science!", a paleontology education initiative to immerse visitors in the scientific inquiry of 71-82 million year old prehistoric environments through paleontology specimens. Key activities include producing K-12 curriculum,...

The National Science Foundation awarded a two-year, $180,000 Project Grant to Zoe T. Kulik under the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050) to investigate the depositional history and paleobiological implications of a rare dicynodont bonebed in Tanzania. Kulik will characterize the bonebed's taphonomy using sedimentology, petrography, trace element analysis, and hard tissue histology to reconstruct the life history and preservation of dicynodonts. This includes assessing temporal and spatial...

The Montana Technological University received a $159,429.71 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of the Interior's U.S. Geological Survey under the National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation program. The grant supports two priorities. The first is to preserve the Chadwick and Feeley sample collections through transporting samples to Butte for inventory, photographing, and making related data publicly available digitally. The second is to archive 200 rock samples from the...

The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology's Museum of Geology received a $316,332 Museums for America (CFDA 45.301) project grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Through this 3-year award, the museum will catalog and rehouse its mineralogy and petrology collections that document mineral diversity in the Black Hills, including strategic minerals. Project staff will train and work with two graduate students and one undergraduate student to identify, curate, and rehouse...

The University of Washington received a three-year, two hundred thirty-three thousand three hundred seventeen dollar Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences under the Geosciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.050) beginning August 1, 2023. Through this award, the University will build a collaborative research program in eastern Montana spanning the first seven million years after the K-Pg mass extinction. A team of geologists and paleontologists will...

This $329,913 federal Project Grant awarded by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) under the National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program (CFDA #15.814) will support two key priorities: Preservation and digital archiving of historic geologic maps across Montana to ensure their long-term availability and accessibility to the public, geoscience researchers, and the mining industry. This includes updating storage conditions and digitizing the maps. Geochemical analysis of 200 samples...

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History will receive $100,000 from the National Science Foundation under the Geosciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.050) to preserve and digitize its collection of exceptionally preserved late Devonian fossils from the Cleveland Shale formation. From February 1, 2023 through January 31, 2026, the Museum will move its at-risk vertebrate paleontology collection into a new climate-controlled storage space to prevent further degradation from pyrite disease. It...

This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) provides $168,890 to Ohio University from January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2025. The funding will support curating, digitizing, and disseminating results from an extensive collection of late Cretaceous vertebrate fossils from Madagascar housed at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Key deliverables include preparing, cataloging, and digitizing the 25,000-specimen collection to modern...