Cooperative Agreement for CESU - Great Lakes – Northern Forest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit | G21AS00286

Opportunity Information: Apply for G21AS00286

This cooperative agreement (Funding Opportunity Number G21AS00286) is a U.S. Geological Survey research funding opportunity issued through the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program, specifically the Great Lakes - Northern Forest CESU. CESUs are formal partnerships designed to support applied research, technical assistance, and education that directly inform management needs. Because it is a CESU award, eligibility is limited to organizations that are already participating partners in the Great Lakes - Northern Forest CESU; it is not an open competition for the general public.

The project focus is wild rice (manoomin) sustainability and the way it is affected by water levels and multiple stressors. The core scientific need is to quantify how wild rice production relates to changes in hydrology, including water-level fluctuations, and to separate or jointly evaluate the impacts of human-driven pressures and climate-driven pressures. The opportunity emphasizes that the work should not only analyze past and current conditions, but also develop predictive capacity that can be used by resource managers and tribal communities to prepare for and respond to future change.

A central deliverable is a watershed ecohydrological modeling framework that can translate climate drivers into water-level outcomes and then into threats to manoomin. The model framework is expected to be informed by existing scientific datasets as well as American Indian knowledge and lived experience, meaning the project is intended to integrate Indigenous knowledge systems with conventional hydrologic and ecological science rather than treating tribal perspectives as an add-on. The modeling is aimed at evaluating predicted scenarios of climate-driven changes in precipitation, evapotranspiration (ET), and runoff, and using those scenario outputs to identify conditions that create risk for wild rice. In practical terms, the framework should help answer questions like how sensitive wild rice habitat is to altered seasonal precipitation patterns, warmer temperatures that increase ET, changes in runoff timing and magnitude, and the resulting shifts in lake, river, or wetland water levels that are critical for germination, growth, and seed production.

The opportunity also makes clear that the research is meant to be directly usable. The modeling framework is intended as a decision-support tool for understanding wild rice responses under multiple future climate scenarios so that resource managers and tribal members can apply the results to sustainable management as conditions change. The project is positioned as producing timely, management-relevant information that supports adaptive management, meaning an approach where actions are adjusted over time as new information and monitoring results become available.

Beyond the technical modeling, the award places strong emphasis on communication and co-production of knowledge with tribal communities through scenario planning. The recipient is expected to facilitate scenario planning workshops centered on tribal community members. These workshops are meant to do more than present findings; they are described as an iterative process where technical results are translated into accessible implications, community members can provide interpretation and context, and together the participants can identify management actions to mitigate and adapt to climate-related impacts on wild rice production. This component is essentially the bridge between the model outputs and real-world decisions, ensuring that adaptation strategies reflect tribal priorities, cultural significance, and practical feasibility.

Another required element is public accessibility of the products. The recipient must publish model information, underlying or supporting data, and interpretive products in publicly available formats. This signals an expectation of transparency and reusability, such as well-documented model code or workflows, accessible datasets, and clear interpretive reports or summaries that allow others to understand assumptions, scenarios, and results. The project is also framed as helping identify future science opportunities for the Midcontinent Climate Adaptation Science Center (MC CASC), implying that the work should be designed in a way that surfaces additional research gaps and follow-on questions relevant to regional climate adaptation.

The stated research objectives are straightforward and define the scope. First, develop a watershed ecohydrological modeling framework capable of predicting water-level threats to manoomin under climate-driven changes in precipitation, ET, and runoff. Second, iteratively translate the technical findings through tribally centered scenario planning to identify potential adaptation strategies to address climate impacts on manoomin. Together, these objectives reflect a combined emphasis on rigorous, scenario-based hydro-ecological modeling and a structured, community-engaged process for turning science into actionable adaptation options.

Administratively, the opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding and uses a cooperative agreement funding instrument, which typically means the agency expects substantial involvement during the project (for example, collaboration on technical direction, coordination, or review). The activity category is Science and Technology and other Research and Development under CFDA 15.808. The listed award ceiling is $570,000. The opportunity was created on January 21, 2021, with an original closing date of February 12, 2021.

• 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 - 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 2021-01-21.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-02-12. (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 $570,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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