Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Basin CESU | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Basin CESU opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number G16AS00120) was a discretionary funding announcement from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) within the Department of the Interior. It was issued under the Cooperative Agreement funding instrument and falls under the Science and Technology and other Research and Development activity category (CFDA 15.808). The opportunity was created on July 26, 2016, with an original closing date of August 10, 2016, indicating a relatively short application window typical of targeted, time-sensitive research needs.

The core purpose of this grant was to support a research project that develops simple, practical methods enabling members of the public to collect and share meaningful information about headwater streams in remote, roadless areas. The emphasis is on approaches that ordinary citizens, such as hikers, backcountry travelers, hunters, anglers, and other recreationists, could realistically use without specialized technical training or heavy equipment. A key measurement specifically highlighted in the description is stream velocity, suggesting USGS interest in field-friendly ways to estimate how fast water is moving in small streams where conventional monitoring stations, professional surveys, or frequent agency site visits may be difficult or expensive.

Because the project is framed around citizen data collection in roadless settings, the research is implicitly about designing methods that are lightweight, low-cost, repeatable, and easy to communicate. In practical terms, that could include creating straightforward protocols for making observations at a stream crossing or along a trail, determining what minimal equipment might be required (for example, a smartphone, a simple float-and-time approach, or other basic tools), and ensuring the resulting information can be recorded and transmitted in a consistent format. The requirement to "measure and communicate data" underscores that the work is not only about measurement techniques, but also about data reporting and usability: how volunteers document what they saw, how location is captured, what metadata are essential (date, time, site characteristics), and how those observations can be shared so the information is meaningful for scientific or management purposes.

Eligibility was limited to Great Basin CESU partners, rather than open competition to all organizations. The listing identifies eligible applicants broadly as "Others" with clarification in an additional eligibility section, which typically indicates that only organizations formally affiliated with the Great Basin Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (such as certain universities, tribes, NGOs, or other partner institutions within the CESU network) could apply. This is consistent with CESU mechanisms, which are often used by federal agencies to collaborate with a defined consortium of research and technical partners to address regional science and management questions.

Funding was modest and tightly scoped. The award ceiling was $6,600, and USGS anticipated making a single award. That scale strongly suggests a small research effort, such as a pilot study, proof-of-concept, protocol development, limited field testing, or creation of guidance materials rather than a large multi-year monitoring program. In that context, the deliverables would likely focus on producing a usable method or set of methods, documenting them clearly, and possibly demonstrating that they work under real conditions encountered in the Great Basin or similar landscapes.

In summary, this opportunity supported a focused USGS collaboration with a Great Basin CESU partner to develop and validate straightforward citizen-friendly techniques for collecting headwater stream data in remote areas, with specific interest in stream velocity and in the practical workflow of transmitting observations so they can contribute to broader scientific understanding or resource management needs.

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