Cooperative Agreement for Affiliated Partner with the Rocky Mountain Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU)

Closed Posted

Opportunity number
G26AS00076
Agency
Applications due
Award size
Up to $47,632

Opportunity facts

Funding instrument
Cooperative Agreement
Category
  • Science and Technology and other Research and Development
Eligible applicants
  • Other
Points of contact

Opportunity details come from Grants.gov. Updated .

About this opportunity

Written by GovTribe AI ·

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is offering a cooperative agreement to support discovery research for developing an Environmental Review Partner Portal—a cloud-native, web-based tool designed to expedite environmental review and project authorization processes. Eligible applicants must be affiliated partners of the Rocky Mountain Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU). The research objectives require investigating existing management workflows, identifying relevant ecological science products and data sources, determining barriers to timely data access, and defining requirements for new resources that enhance efficiency while maintaining scientific integrity and transparency. Applications will be evaluated using 100-point criteria assessing purpose and relevance (25 points), technical approach (25 points), budget justification (25 points), and qualifications and experience (25 points). The proposal deadline is March 12, 2026, with submission required through Grants.gov using Funding Opportunity Number G26AS00076.

The award value is $47,632 for a one-year budget period with a negotiated indirect cost rate of 17.5%. Deliverables include a user experience research plan, identification of primary project authorization workflows and existing systems, mapping of data resources and repositories, and definition of requirements for improvements to support environmental permitting decisions. Award recipients must submit annual progress reports within 90 days of each agreement anniversary and a final technical report within 120 days of project completion. All geospatial data produced must comply with Federal Geospatial Data Committee (FGDC) standards and be submitted in open format, with all resulting data and scientific products retained by the Department of the Interior for federal and third-party use.

Synopsis

The USGS is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research that will support the development of resources that expedite review and authorization of new projects. Resources include web-based tools that support project proponents and federal staff that review project documentation to conduct reviews more efficiently. This work is supporting the Permitting Council and their priorities by developing a cloud-native Environmental Review Partner Portal to support environmental review workflows. Central to this is improving availability and accessibility to sound ecological science products and data to inform and defend environmental permitting decisions. Therefore, this is inherently tied to ecosystem research and requires a performer with domain knowledge. The research to be completed under this opportunity is to investigate and identify source information most relevant to different workflows and solving barriers to timely access such that - in alignment with EO 14303 - Restoring Gold Standard Science - federal decisions may be informed by the most credible and impartial scientific evidence. The purpose of this study is to get a baseline understanding of existing processes and the functionality that will most effectively deliver the intended benefits. As such, discovery research needs to be conducted to gather and synthesize necessary information on various management workflows, what systems are used, who is involved at which stages, where and how data are accessed and input, and where processes align or diverge based on land ownership, scale, and statutory authority. What is discovered shall be used to inform requirements for new resources that will maintain integrity while creating efficiencies and improving transparency. The goal of this research is to provide timely and actionable science that helps resource managers make informed decisions related to project authorization and natural resource management. The cooperation of the USGS and its CESU partner brings a combination of expertise to address this objective that is greater than that possessed by either partner on its own.

Files

File Type Posted
Full Announcement.docx DOCX document
ATTACHMENT D - Geospatial Data instructions.docx DOCX document
ATTACHMENT C - Project Abstract Summary Requirement.docx DOCX document
ATTACHMENT B - Common-form-current-and-pending-support-doi-omb-3145-0279 3.pdf PDF
ATTACHMENT A -Biographical-sketch-common-form-doi-omb-3145-0279 3.pdf PDF

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