Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Californian CESU | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

This grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number 08HQPA0031) is a US Geological Survey (USGS) National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) cooperative agreement aimed at strengthening how vertebrate zoology data and natural resource information are delivered, shared, and used across local, regional, and national scales. The core idea is to partner with a qualified university that is already a member of the Californian Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) network and has the technical and scientific capacity to support "science delivery" and "technology transfer" for biological data, with a heavy emphasis on museum and specimen-backed vertebrate records. The work is intended to improve the availability, accuracy, and practical usefulness of verified vertebrate species distribution records and to make those results widely accessible through USGS, university, museum, and state agency websites, including the NBII portal (historically referenced as http://www.nbii.gov).

A major theme of the opportunity is building on and extending successful community data-sharing efforts that were previously funded by the National Science Foundation, such as ManIS, HerpNet, FishNet, and ORNIS. Those earlier networks demonstrated the value of aggregating digitized museum specimen data and making it searchable online for real-world needs like federal land management, conservation planning, agency decision making, and education. This USGS NBII award is positioned as a way to help move that ecosystem toward the broader, more integrated vision often described as VertNet: a national and international network designed to support natural history museums in digitizing collections, applying shared standards and protocols, developing governance and sustainability models, and publishing data through multiple interoperable web portals. In other words, the project is not just about hosting a database; it is about enabling a distributed network where many institutions can contribute specimen-backed records in consistent formats so that the data can be aggregated, discovered, and reused at scale.

The NBII itself is described as a large collaborative partnership spanning federal, state, local, and international agencies, academic institutions, museums, non-governmental organizations, and private-sector groups. Its purpose is to serve as an "intelligent gateway" to biological and natural resources information worldwide, using enterprise portal technologies to make existing datasets, information products, and analytical tools easier to find and apply. NBII also functions as the US node for the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), which focuses on aggregating and serving specimen-backed biodiversity data globally. Because of this role, the project is framed as contributing not only to US needs but also to broader global biodiversity informatics infrastructure, particularly where museum voucher specimens provide verifiable evidence for distribution records.

The expected award is a single cooperative agreement, meaning USGS anticipates being actively involved rather than simply providing funding and receiving a final report. USGS and the CESU university partner are expected to work closely together on several concrete coordination and network-building activities: assessing and reviewing the needs of participating museum collections; identifying potential new institutional partners that could contribute data; briefing relevant agencies and foundations about opportunities to support and benefit from these distributed data portals; exploring and pursuing sustainability models so the data networks can persist beyond short-term grant cycles; and ensuring the resulting information reaches not only researchers but also professionals in other federal and state agencies, educators, and ultimately the general public. The end goal is to supplement and strengthen ongoing NBII efforts while expanding the reach and cohesion of an integrated national network for biological information.

Eligibility is narrow and specific. Applicants must be participating partners of the Californian CESU Program. The announcement lists the eligible applicant category as "Others" with clarification that eligibility is tied to CESU participation. The ideal awardee is a CESU university with advanced expertise in building web portals that support distributed databases, specifically for museum records of vertebrate species. This emphasis on distributed systems and museum-specimen data implies the work would likely involve data standards, interoperability protocols, aggregation services, and user-facing tools that make it easier for agencies and the public to query and interpret specimen-backed distribution information.

Funding and timing details are clearly defined. Total funding is anticipated to be up to 150,000, but the first-year amount is capped at 70,000 for FY2008 (the notice lists an award ceiling and floor of 70,000 for that fiscal year). The project period is expected to last up to one year, with the possibility of renewal into a second year based on performance and availability of funds; however, the announcement explicitly states that an award in this cycle does not guarantee future funding. The anticipated start date is July 1, 2008, with an end date of June 30, 2009. There is no cost sharing or matching requirement indicated.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding using a cooperative agreement instrument under the Science and Technology and other Research and Development activity category. The CFDA number is 15.808 (US Geological Survey Research and Data Collection). The opportunity was posted May 28, 2008, and had an application closing date of June 9, 2008, with an archive date of July 9, 2008. The contact listed for access issues and contracting questions is Faith Graves, Contract Specialist, at 703-648-7356.

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