Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Great Lakes Northern Forest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit | G23AS00459

Opportunity Information: Apply for G23AS00459

This opportunity is a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) cooperative agreement aimed specifically at organizations that are already partners in the Great Lakes Northern Forest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU). The core purpose is to support research and data collection that will build "urban ecosystem accounts" for cities across the United States and improve how urban ecosystem services are valued by explicitly factoring in environmental justice and equity. In practice, that means moving beyond average, citywide estimates of benefits like cooling from tree canopy, stormwater retention, air quality improvement, recreation, and other nature-based services, and instead examining who actually receives those benefits, where gaps exist, and how those patterns relate to underserved or overburdened communities.

A central deliverable is the development of natural capital accounts connected to urban environments. These accounts are intended to organize ecological data and economic valuation in a consistent way so decision-makers can track the condition and value of natural assets over time, compare trends across places, and understand how drivers like development pressures and climate change alter both ecosystem function and economic outcomes. The project explicitly includes attention to climate change impacts, with an emphasis on producing scientific and economic information about how the value of natural capital is changing and what that implies for management decisions.

The work is national in scope, but it also requires focused case-study application. Researchers are expected to select roughly three to five Department of the Interior (DOI) urban management units as case studies. These units can include lands and sites managed by DOI bureaus such as the National Park Service (NPS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) that sit within or adjacent to urban areas. The case studies are meant to demonstrate how urban ecosystem accounting can be applied in real management contexts, generating practical insights for DOI land managers on topics such as inequitable access to ecosystem services, prioritizing investments in nature-based solutions, and adapting urban public lands to climate-related stressors like heat, flooding, drought, and extreme storms.

The opportunity is positioned as important to DOI broadly and to NPS and USFWS specifically because it supports ongoing efforts to address environmental justice issues on public lands. By adjusting ecosystem service values to reflect equity considerations, the results should help agencies identify where benefits from urban nature are unevenly distributed, where communities may be disproportionately exposed to environmental harms, and how management actions on DOI lands could help close those gaps. The expected outcome is decision-ready information that can guide the management of DOI urban land management units in ways that improve fairness in the distribution of ecosystem services while also strengthening resilience to climate change.

Administratively, this is a discretionary funding opportunity issued as a cooperative agreement, which typically indicates substantial involvement or collaboration with the federal agency during project execution compared with a standard grant. The funding activity category is Science and Technology and other Research and Development, and the listing is under CFDA (now commonly referenced as Assistance Listing) 15.808. Eligibility is limited: applicants must be participating partners of the Great Lakes Northern Forest CESU. The opportunity number is G23AS00459, the agency is the USGS, and the posted award ceiling is $70,500. The opportunity was created on July 27, 2023, and the original closing date was August 28, 2023.

• The Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Great Lakes Northern Forest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit" 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 2023-07-27.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-08-28. (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 $70,500.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for G23AS00459

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