Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Colorado Plateau CESU | G20AS00116

Opportunity Information: Apply for G20AS00116

The Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Colorado Plateau CESU funding opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number G20AS00116) is a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) discretionary research grant offered through the Department of the Interior. It is structured as a cooperative agreement, which typically means the USGS expects to have substantial involvement during the project period (for example, collaborating on technical direction, coordination, and project execution) rather than simply issuing a stand-alone grant with minimal agency engagement. The opportunity was created on June 30, 2020, with an original application closing date of July 22, 2020, and it is associated with CFDA number 15.808. The program anticipates making one award, with a maximum funding level (award ceiling) of $100,000.

The central purpose of the award is to support a partner within the Colorado Plateau Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) network in building and strengthening a focused program around reclamation science in arid environments. Specifically, the project is meant to address persistent and high-priority challenges that land managers face when trying to reclaim lands disturbed by oil and gas development and other surface-disturbing activities common across dryland systems. In these landscapes, recovering ecological function and meeting reclamation objectives can be difficult due to harsh climate conditions, limited water availability, slow soil development, and complex interactions among plants, soils, and disturbance legacies. The USGS Southwest Biological Science Center (SBSC) is seeking to invest in work that helps move reclamation from trial-and-error toward more predictable, evidence-based outcomes.

The funded effort is framed around three connected goals. First, it aims to improve understanding of the biotic and abiotic constraints on successful reclamation. This includes biological factors such as native plant establishment, invasive species pressures, seed and propagule limitations, herbivory, and microbial community dynamics, as well as non-biological factors like soil properties, compaction, salinity, erosion risk, hydrologic changes, and the timing and intensity of precipitation and temperature extremes. The intent is to identify which limiting factors most strongly determine whether reclaimed sites can re-establish stable vegetation communities and regain ecosystem functions over time, and how those constraints vary across site types and disturbance contexts in arid regions.

Second, the opportunity emphasizes improving post-reclamation monitoring programs. Monitoring is often the weak link between implementation and learning: if post-treatment data are inconsistent, short-term, or not tied to clear performance indicators, managers cannot reliably determine what worked, what failed, or why. This grant is positioned to support better monitoring approaches that are more informative and comparable across projects, such as clearer metrics of success, stronger sampling designs, improved time horizons for tracking recovery, and methods that capture both vegetation outcomes and underlying drivers (soil stability, infiltration, nutrient cycling, invasive risk, and other indicators relevant to drylands). The broader objective is to make monitoring practical for management while still scientifically rigorous enough to guide adaptive management and future investments.

Third, the project is intended to identify management practices that promote reclamation success. This can include evaluating or refining on-the-ground practices such as soil handling and storage, recontouring and erosion control, seeding strategies and species selection, timing of treatments, weed management, protective measures during establishment, and approaches that reduce stress during early recovery. By tying these practices to the constraints identified in the first goal and the improved monitoring emphasized in the second goal, the program is designed to produce results that land managers can apply directly to increase the likelihood of successful reclamation and reduce repeated disturbance or costly rework.

Eligibility is limited to CESU partners, with the formal eligibility category listed as "Others" and clarified in the opportunity materials under an additional eligibility section. In practical terms, this means the competition is intended for organizations that are already part of the CESU partnership network associated with the Colorado Plateau CESU, which commonly includes universities, tribal entities, nongovernmental organizations, and other qualified research partners that collaborate with federal agencies on applied science needs. Overall, this opportunity is a targeted investment by USGS SBSC in actionable dryland reclamation science, aimed at improving both understanding and implementation in the face of ongoing land disturbance pressures.

• The Department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Colorado Plateau CESU" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.808.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 30, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 22, 2020. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $100,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for G20AS00116

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