Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Californian Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit | G24AS00223

This is a US Geological Survey (USGS) discretionary funding announcement for a cooperative agreement. It is issued through the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program and is targeted specifically to partners in the Californian CESU network. The work supported is science and technology research and development aligned with USGS coastal mission needs, with an emphasis on understanding and projecting coastal hazards.

The opportunity supports USGS coastal mission needs and aligns with the Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program (CMHRP). It specifically connects to the Coastal Change Hazards (CCH) priority study area, which focuses on processes and risks that drive shoreline and coastal change.

Only organizations that are already participating partners in the Californian CESU network are eligible to apply. Because the announcement is issued through the CESU Program, eligibility is restricted to that partner community.

This award is structured as a cooperative agreement. In practical terms, that typically means USGS expects substantial involvement and collaboration during the project, rather than a hands-off relationship.

The core purpose is to advance research on coastal ecosystems and hazards, with a primary research objective focused on coastal storm forcing. The project emphasizes developing, improving, testing, and applying models that describe the statistical distributions of future wave conditions and storm surge time series.

In this announcement, coastal storm forcing refers to the wave conditions and storm surge behavior that influence coastal hazards. The modeling work is intended to help quantify how waves and storm surge might behave in the future, including variability and extremes, in forms that can be used for hazard analysis.

The emphasis is on models and methods that can produce (1) statistical distributions of future wave conditions and (2) storm surge time series. The work should support hazard-focused applications by translating climate and oceanographic drivers into time-series representations suitable for coastal hazard assessments.

The announcement is framed around improving the ability to understand and project coastal hazards. By producing robust representations of future waves and storm surge (including extremes), the outputs are intended to be directly usable in coastal change and hazard assessments consistent with the Coastal Change Hazards (CCH) priorities.

The award ceiling listed for this opportunity is $360,000.

The funding opportunity number is G24AS00223.

The opportunity is associated with CFDA number 15.808.

The announcement was created on December 20, 2023.

The original closing date listed is January 22, 2024.

The activity category is listed as Science and Technology and other Research and Development. This matches the emphasis on modeling development, testing, and applied research outputs.

The posting notes expected awards, but the number of expected awards is not provided in the information available here. Applicants would typically confirm the expected number of awards in the full notice or related USGS documentation.

The announcement is issued through the CESU Program, and it is aimed specifically at partners in the Californian CESU network. Because of that CESU channel, only participating partner organizations in that network can apply.

Because the award mechanism is a cooperative agreement, the project is expected to involve substantial USGS involvement and collaboration during the work. This is different from a purely hands-off funding relationship.

Based on the stated objectives, deliverables are likely to center on robust modeling methods and model outputs that characterize future wave and storm surge statistical distributions and time series. These outputs are intended to be usable for coastal change and hazard assessments aligned with USGS priorities.