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Funding Opportunity G14AS00043 FAQ

What is Funding Opportunity Number G14AS00043?

G14AS00043 was a discretionary, science and technology-focused cooperative agreement offered by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), through the Fort Collins Science Center (FORT).

Which USGS office offered this opportunity?

The opportunity was offered by the USGS Fort Collins Science Center (FORT).

What was the purpose of this cooperative agreement?

The purpose was to fund one project to design and document best practices for a "universal clearing house" to receive and manage live-stream wildlife tracking data, especially from Doppler and GPS telemetry systems.

How many awards were expected?

One award was anticipated.

What was the estimated total funding amount?

The estimated total funding amount for the project was $15,097.

Was cost share or matching required?

No. The opportunity stated that no cost share or matching funds were required.

Who was eligible to apply?

Eligibility was limited to organizations that were already participating partners in the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) network, specifically partners in the Great Lakes Northern Forests CESU Program.

What is the CESU connection and why was eligibility limited?

The opportunity followed the CESU model, which leverages established research partnerships to provide applied research, technical support, and education for federal resource management needs. In this case, only existing partners in the Great Lakes Northern Forests CESU Program were eligible.

What kind of data was the "universal clearing house" meant to handle?

The clearing house was intended to receive and manage continuously incoming (live-stream) wildlife tracking data derived from Doppler and GPS telemetry systems.

What does "universal clearing house" mean in this context?

In this context, a universal clearing house refers to a central, standardized intake and processing layer for wildlife telemetry information that arrives continuously from tagged animals.

What were the core functions expected of the clearing house?

The core functions described included harvesting incoming telemetry feeds, processing and formatting data for use, applying quality control checks (QA/QC) to improve reliability, and maintaining secondary storage for redundancy and data stewardship.

Was the clearing house intended to be the primary data storage system?

No. The opportunity specified that the primary storage location would be the Landscape Conservation Management and Analysis Portal (LC MAP), with the clearing house supporting ingestion, QA/QC, workflows, and secondary storage.

What is LC MAP and what role did it play?

LC MAP (Landscape Conservation Management and Analysis Portal) was identified as the system where the primary storage would reside. The clearing house was expected to support the overall pipeline that feeds and prepares data for LC MAP.

Were there security or compliance expectations mentioned?

Yes. LC MAP was noted as compliant with the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA), signaling that the overall architecture was expected to align with federal security and information management requirements.

Which agencies were involved in the collaboration?

The project was framed as a collaboration between USGS FORT and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), with a CESU partner brought in to help develop a more broadly usable data management approach.

Was the project focused on a specific species?

The initial real-world use case was the tracking and management of California condors, but the broader intent was explicitly cross-species.

What does "cross-species" mean for this project?

It means the work was intended to be adaptable and reusable for telemetry tracking data across many wildlife species and conservation or management programs, not limited to condors.

What type of agreement was this (grant vs. cooperative agreement)?

It was described as a cooperative agreement, which is a form of federal assistance often used when substantial involvement by the awarding agency is expected.

When was the opportunity posted and when did it close?

It was created and posted on March 10, 2014. The original and final closing date was March 21, 2014.

How long was the application window?

Based on the posted and closing dates provided (March 10, 2014 to March 21, 2014), the application window was short.

When was the opportunity archived?

The opportunity was later archived on June 10, 2014.

Were award ceiling and floor amounts provided?

Award ceiling and floor were both listed as zero, which typically indicates the listing did not specify hard minimum or maximum award levels and instead relied on the estimated total funding amount provided.

What CFDA number was associated with this opportunity?

The CFDA number associated with the program was 15.808 (U.S. Geological Survey Research and Data Collection).

Where were applicants directed to find the full announcement?

For more information at the time, applicants were directed to Grants.gov to access the full announcement.

Who was the contact person listed for assistance?

A USGS contact, Faith Graves, was provided for assistance with accessing the full announcement.

Was this opportunity limited to a single project?

Yes. The stated purpose was to fund one project, and only one award was anticipated.

What was the main deliverable implied by the description?

The description emphasizes designing and documenting best practices for the clearing house approach, implying a best-practices design and documentation deliverable centered on live-stream telemetry data ingestion, processing, QA/QC, and secondary storage, with LC MAP as the primary storage location.