Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Gulf Coast CESU | Apply Online

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the name of this grant opportunity?

This opportunity is the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Gulf Coast CESU grant opportunity.

What is the Funding Opportunity Number (FON)?

The Funding Opportunity Number is G16AS00039.

Which federal agency is offering this funding?

The funding announcement was issued by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Which department is USGS issuing this through?

It is issued through the Department of the Interior.

What USGS center is associated with this announcement?

The opportunity is associated with the Wetland and Aquatic Research Center (WARC).

Is this a discretionary or mandatory funding opportunity?

This is a discretionary funding opportunity.

What type of award is expected?

The award is expected to be made as a cooperative agreement.

What does a cooperative agreement mean for the recipient?

A cooperative agreement typically means the selected recipient should expect substantial involvement and collaboration with USGS staff during the project, rather than operating completely independently.

What program category does this opportunity fall under?

The announcement is in the Science and Technology and other Research and Development category.

What is the CFDA number associated with this opportunity?

The opportunity is associated with CFDA number 15.808.

What is the main purpose of the award?

The purpose is to support research focused on the practical and technical challenges of managing data generated by large-scale restoration projects across the Gulf of Mexico.

What geographic region does the work focus on?

The work focuses on Gulf of Mexico restoration efforts, which span a very large geographic area.

What kinds of restoration projects are referenced?

The announcement references many types of Gulf restoration work, including wetland restoration, coastal protection, aquatic habitat improvements, and other ecosystem recovery activities.

What problem is this funding intended to address?

It targets the difficulty of sharing data across communities, comparing results across projects, and building software tools that can reliably ingest and use datasets from multiple sources due to inconsistent data types, formats, and documentation styles.

Why is data sharing difficult across Gulf restoration projects?

Because restoration efforts are designed and implemented by different groups for different objectives, they often produce a wide range of data types, file or database formats, and documentation approaches, making interoperability challenging.

Is the focus on collecting more data or improving data usability?

The emphasis is not simply collecting more data. The focus is on improving how restoration data are organized, described, and made usable at scale.

What is the central theme of the research described in the announcement?

A central theme is developing or identifying suitable data format guidelines and related practices to support cross-community data sharing and tool development.

What kinds of activities might be included in the supported research?

Based on the announcement description, the work may involve identifying commonalities across datasets, recommending or evaluating standard structures and metadata approaches, and proposing methods to make restoration data more interoperable so different organizations can exchange information with less manual reformatting.

How would the results of this project be used?

The goal is to enable consistent formatting guidance that makes it easier to share and compare restoration datasets and to build software tools that can work reliably across data from many organizations.

How many awards were anticipated?

The announcement anticipated making a single award.

What is the maximum funding amount available?

The award ceiling (maximum funding level) is $286,000.

When was the opportunity posted?

The posting date was March 1, 2016.

What is the creation date listed for the opportunity?

The creation date was March 1, 2016.

What was the application deadline?

The closing date for applications was March 15, 2016.

How long was the application window?

Based on the posting date (March 1, 2016) and the closing date (March 15, 2016), the application window was very short.

Who is eligible to apply?

Eligibility is listed as "Others," with additional clarification intended to be provided in the full eligibility text of the announcement.

Does the announcement specify what "Others" means for eligibility?

The summary provided indicates that additional clarification would typically be included in the full eligibility section, which commonly points applicants toward specific partner categories or institutional requirements tied to the Gulf Coast Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) framework.

What is the Gulf Coast CESU connection in this opportunity?

The opportunity is described as a Gulf Coast CESU grant opportunity, and the eligibility clarification is noted as commonly connected to partner categories or requirements associated with the Gulf Coast CESU framework.

What makes this opportunity different from a standard research grant?

The use of a cooperative agreement suggests more active collaboration with USGS staff during the project, and the topic is oriented toward practical, technical interoperability and data management challenges that affect many restoration projects and organizations.

What is the intended high-level outcome of funding this work?

The intended outcome is to reduce real-world data management and interoperability barriers across Gulf restoration efforts, improving cross-project synthesis, decision-making support, and long-term stewardship of restoration data.