Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Chesapeake Watershed CESU | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Chesapeake Watershed CESU funding opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number G16AS00061) is a US Geological Survey (USGS) discretionary grant offered through a cooperative agreement mechanism. It is aimed specifically at an eligible CESU partner within the Chesapeake Watershed CESU network and supports science and technology research and development work connected to citizen science. The overall purpose is to help federal agencies better evaluate the scientific outcomes produced by citizen science projects, especially as citizen science continues to grow in both visibility and practical value for conservation and natural resource management.

At the core of the opportunity is a need to create and test an evaluation instrument, basically a practical tool or framework that agencies can use to measure, compare, and communicate the scientific productivity and outcomes of citizen science efforts. Citizen science is framed here as public participation in authentic scientific research, where volunteers and professionals collaborate to expand the scope, scale, or type of knowledge that can be produced. The opportunity notes that the field has matured quickly and has already contributed meaningful scientific knowledge, supported successful conservation actions, increased acceptance within scientific communities, and helped build a more engaged and informed public. Even with those benefits, the announcement emphasizes that agencies still lack standardized criteria and tools for assessing outcomes in a consistent way across different projects.

The motivation for developing this instrument is tied to recent guidance from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), which advised federal agencies to build capacity to manage and support citizen science when it serves agency missions. In practice, that directive creates an operational problem: if agencies are going to invest in and scale citizen science, they need defensible ways to evaluate whether projects are producing meaningful scientific results, and how those results compare across programs. The notice explicitly states that such instruments are not currently available, creating a gap in practical knowledge that affects decision-making. Without a credible evaluation approach, agencies may struggle to review funding proposals, set reasonable expectations for scientific output, or justify investments relative to staffing, technology, training, data management, and other resource requirements.

The funded work is expected to cover research and development of the evaluation instrument itself, along with recommendations for implementation. That implementation component matters because it suggests the deliverable is not just a conceptual framework but something that can be put into use by agencies, including guidance on how to apply it in real program contexts. To make sure the tool is broadly applicable rather than tailored to a single niche effort, the opportunity also calls for applying the framework to one or more federal citizen science projects. That pilot-style application is intended to demonstrate usability, highlight practical constraints, and show that the evaluation approach can work across different project designs, scientific domains, and participation models.

Administratively, the opportunity was posted April 27, 2016, with an application closing date of May 13, 2016. The award ceiling is $30,000, with one award expected. The funding activity category is listed as Science and Technology and other Research and Development, and the CFDA number is 15.808. Because it is issued as a cooperative agreement, applicants should expect substantial involvement from the federal agency during the project, which commonly means coordination on scope, iterative review of products, and collaboration on applying the instrument to appropriate federal citizen science case studies.

In summary, this grant is a small, targeted USGS investment designed to solve a specific federal need: developing a credible, usable way to evaluate scientific outcomes from citizen science projects. The intent is to strengthen agency capacity to plan, fund, and manage citizen science by providing a structured instrument for assessing productivity and outcomes, supported by real-world testing on federal projects and accompanied by practical implementation recommendations.

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