Competition for a Cooperative Institute to Support Water Resources | NOAA NWS NWS CIPO 2021 2007043

Opportunity Information: Apply for NOAA NWS NWS CIPO 2021 2007043

The Competition for a Cooperative Institute to Support Water Resources is a NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) funding opportunity to create a new Cooperative Institute (CI) focused on strengthening the nation s water resources science and decision support. NOAA frames water as a cross-cutting priority that touches many of its mission areas and service outlets, from local forecast offices to national centers. The agency emphasizes that NOAA products and services already inform critical choices across the full range of time horizons, including emergency response during floods, preparedness for drought and low flow conditions, and the everyday planning needs of water managers. Because water information underpins public safety, infrastructure resilience, and economic activity, NOAA describes continued improvement of its water resources information capabilities as part of the country s essential national infrastructure and a contributor to water and economic security.

The core purpose of the new CI is to accelerate and expand NOAA s ability to deliver actionable water resources intelligence that supports forecasts, watches, warnings, and related decision tools that protect life and property while also benefiting the broader economy. In practice, the institute is meant to help translate research into operationally useful science and services so NOAA can better support both routine high-value decisions (like seasonal reservoir operations) and event-driven high-impact situations (like extreme rainfall, flash flooding, river flooding, and compound hazards). The CI is positioned as a mechanism to advance the scientific foundation, technical methods, data systems, and human-dimensions understanding needed to modernize NOAA s water resources services.

NOAA identifies four major research themes that the Cooperative Institute is expected to pursue. First is the expansion and improvement of water resources prediction capabilities, which generally refers to better forecasting and prediction across hydrologic conditions such as drought, low flows, and flood risk, and doing so at the spatial and temporal scales users actually need. Second is the advancement and acceleration of water resources modeling, signaling an emphasis on improving hydrologic and related models, increasing their accuracy and robustness, and speeding the pathway from research models to operational deployment and maintenance. Third is the advancement and augmentation of hydroinformatics, which usually includes the data and computing side of modern hydrology: managing and integrating diverse datasets, improving workflows, building decision-support tools, using cloud and high-performance computing where appropriate, and creating systems that make information easier to find, interpret, and use. Fourth is the application of social, economic, and behavioral science to water resources, highlighting that better forecasts alone do not guarantee better outcomes; NOAA wants research that explains how people and institutions perceive, value, and act on water information, and how to design products and communication approaches that lead to more effective decisions.

NOAA also makes a point that the CI s research agenda is designed to complement, not duplicate, work done at other Cooperative Institutes, except where some overlap is beneficial. That means proposals should show awareness of the existing CI landscape and clearly explain what this institute uniquely contributes, how it fills gaps, and how it will coordinate rather than compete with related NOAA-supported efforts. Collaboration is explicitly encouraged, with NOAA urging the CI to work alongside a broad network of partners, including other federal or governmental agencies, private industry, non-traditional partners, NOAA laboratories and science and data centers, other Cooperative Institutes, Cooperative Science Centers, and Sea Grant Colleges. The intent is an institute that can convene expertise across disciplines and sectors, and that can connect research outputs to NOAA operations and stakeholder needs.

On eligibility and structure, the opportunity allows applications from one or more academic or nonprofit, degree-granting institutions with strong research programs aligned to NOAA s mission. NOAA anticipates that the CI could be a single institution or a consortium. If a consortium applies, NOAA will still make only one award, issued to the lead academic institution where the CI will be established and physically resident, with partner institutions participating under the lead s umbrella through subawards or other formal arrangements.

Administratively, this is a discretionary funding opportunity using a cooperative agreement, which typically indicates substantial NOAA involvement during the period of performance through coordination, collaboration, and shared project direction rather than a hands-off grant. The opportunity is issued by the Department of Commerce under NOAA, with CFDA number 11.432. NOAA expected to make one award, with an award ceiling listed as 360,000,000. The original posting dates in the source information show a creation date of September 30, 2021 and an original closing date of November 29, 2021, which helps place this competition in time and indicates it was designed to select a single institute to serve as NOAA s long-term research and service partner in this water resources focus area.

• The Department of Commerce in the environment, natural resources, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Competition for a Cooperative Institute to Support Water Resources" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 11.432.
• This funding opportunity was created on Sep 30, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Nov 29, 2021. (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 $360,000,000.00 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 NOAA NWS NWS CIPO 2021 2007043

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