Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Gulf Coast CESU | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The grant opportunity "Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Gulf Coast CESU" (Funding Opportunity Number 08HQPA0014) is a US Geological Survey (USGS) discretionary funding announcement that supports a cooperative agreement for a project called Park Break. Park Break is built around a simple idea: bring graduate students into national park settings during common university break periods for intensive, field-based seminars, then have those students turn what they learn into practical, scientifically grounded products that park managers can actually use. The program is framed as both a stewardship initiative and a workforce development pipeline, aiming to connect academic research training with real management questions in parks and protected areas.

At the center of Park Break are global scientific themes that are immediately relevant to park operations and long-term planning. The announcement highlights themes such as global climate change, the effects of urbanization, public engagement in park issues, and conservation policy. These themes are not meant to be one-off topics limited to a single site; they are selected specifically because they can be applied across multiple parks in the system. In practice, the program uses a chosen theme as a lens for helping students and park staff jointly examine how a broad scientific challenge shows up on the ground at a particular park, what the existing science says, and what management-relevant insights can be drawn from it.

A defining requirement of the project is that participating graduate students must produce a professional paper. These papers are described as technical reviews: students are expected to conduct a high-quality literature review tied to the theme, work directly with park staff to understand the management context and constraints, and then deliver a detailed written summary for park management that includes references and actionable recommendations. To strengthen credibility and scientific integrity, the opportunity specifies that these products will also be submitted to peer-reviewed journals, ensuring the work is not only useful internally to parks but also contributes to the broader scientific and professional discourse around protected area management.

The objectives laid out in the announcement combine park-focused technical assistance with deliberate professional development for emerging researchers and managers. First, Park Break intends to provide parks with a research framework organized around high-priority global themes that will shape park stewardship "into the next century." Second, it aims to deliver park-specific research support by having graduate students synthesize science, translate it into management-relevant guidance, and capture that guidance in a documented product that park staff can reference and apply. Third, the program is designed to help graduate students about to enter the workforce place their academic specialization into the real-world context of protected area decision-making, where science must often be interpreted under operational, policy, and public-facing constraints. A further stated objective is to encourage participation by minority graduate students and expose them to potential career paths within USGS or the National Park Service (NPS), positioning Park Break as both a diversity-focused engagement effort and a recruitment/awareness mechanism for federal science and resource management careers.

In terms of funding details, the opportunity anticipated a single award with a total estimated funding amount of $30,000, with both the award ceiling and floor listed as $30,000. The funding instrument is a cooperative agreement, which generally signals substantial involvement or collaboration with the federal agency during performance rather than a hands-off grant. The activity category is "Science and Technology and other Research and Development," and the CFDA number is 15.808 (U.S. Geological Survey Research and Data Collection). A cost-sharing or matching requirement is indicated as "Yes," meaning the recipient is expected to contribute resources beyond the federal share, although the specific structure of the match would normally be defined in the full announcement or negotiated in the agreement.

Eligibility is restricted to organizations that are already participating partners in the Gulf Coast Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program. CESUs are collaborative networks that link federal agencies with universities, nonprofits, and other partners to provide research, technical assistance, and education related to ecosystem management. In other words, this is not an open call to any applicant; it is limited to entities within the Gulf Coast CESU partnership framework.

Key dates in the posted record show it was originally posted on January 14, 2008, with creation on January 29, 2008, an original closing date of January 24, 2008, and a current closing date of January 31, 2008, before being archived on March 1, 2008. The listed contact for access issues is Faith Peters, Contract Specialist, at 703-648-7356.

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