Funding

Deadline Passed 12/14/2018. Deadline Unknown for 2019. The NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP), authorized in the Marine Debris Act (33 U.S.C. 1951-1958), provides funding to support eligible organizations to conduct research directly related to marine debris through field, laboratory, and modeling experiments. The MDP invites applications for research funding in any of three areas of focus: research that explores the ecological risk associated with marine debris and determines debris exposure levels; research that examines the fate and transport of marine debris; and/or research that quantifies habitat impacts resulting from marine debris and the gains in ecosystem services that result when debris is removed.

Deadline passed as of March 1, 2017. Deadline for 2018 unknown. Funding available for undergraduate Earth Science research. Special consideration for projects focused on the Rocky Mountain region. Student must be a member of the GSA.

Deadline passed. Most recent deadline: 6/30/2021. The Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) is requesting proposals for its Energizing Insular Communities (EIC) Program which provides grant funding for sustainable energy strategies that mitigate climate change, reduce reliance and expenditures on imported fuels, develop and utilize domestic energy sources, and improve the performance of energy infrastructure and overall energy efficiency in the territories.

NSF’s Coastal SEES program focuses on the sustainability of coastal systems, which include barrier islands, mudflats, beaches, estuaries, cities, towns, recreational areas, maritime facilities, continental seas and shelves, and the overlying atmosphere. The Coastal SEES program, in short, seeks to 1) advance understanding of fundamental, interconnected processes in coastal systems, 2) improve capabilities for predictingfuture coastal system states and impacts, and 3) identify pathways for research to be translated to policy and management domains, enhancing coastal resiliency.

Deadline Passed 06/27/2019. Deadline Unknown for 2020. The purpose of the Sun Grant Program (SGP) is to enhance national energy security through the development, distribution, and implementation of biobased energy technologies; to promote diversification in, and the environmental sustainability of, agricultural production in the United States through biobased energy and product technologies; to promote economic diversification in rural areas of the United States through biobased energy and product technologies; and to enhance the efficiency of bioenergy and biomass research and development programs through improved coordination and collaboration among the Department of Agriculture; other appropriate Federal agencies (as determined by the Secretary); and Land Grant Institutions.

Deadline Passed 11/27/2019. Deadline Unknown for 2020. U.S. Department of Agriculture - Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is announcing the availability of up to $50 million in Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program (VPA-HIP) funding to create or enhance State and Tribal Government programs that encourage owners and operators of privately held farm, ranch, and forest land to voluntarily make that land available for access by the public for hunting, fishing, and other wildlife-dependent recreation. VPA-HIP is a competitive grants program and only State and Tribal Governments may apply. Projects may be up to three years in duration. The maximum amount for a single award is $3 million. Up to 25 percent of the funding for each award may be used to provide incentives to improve wildlife habitat on enrolled public access program lands.

Deadline passed as of November 9th, 2018. Deadline for 2019 unknown. NOAA has developed the Coastal Ecosystem Resiliency Grants Program to build resilience of coastal ecosystems, communities and economies in the U.S. The Coastal Ecosystem Resiliency awards will fund projects that develop healthy and sustainable coastal ecosystems through habitat restoration and conservation.

Proposals Accepted Any Time. The goals of the Program are to: (i) advance knowledge about the processes that force and regulate the atmosphere synoptic and planetary circulation, weather and climate, and (ii) sustain the pool of human resources required for excellence in synoptic and global atmospheric dynamics and climate research. Research topics include theoretical, observational and modeling studies of the general circulation of the stratosphere and troposphere; synoptic scale weather phenomena; processes that govern climate; the causes of climate variability and change; methods to predict climate variations; extended weather and climate predictability; development and testing of parameterization of physical processes; numerical methods for use in large-scale weather and climate models; the assembly and analysis of instrumental and/or modeled weather and climate data; data assimilation studies; development and use of climate models to diagnose and simulate climate and its variations and change.

Deadline Passed 01/05/2020. Deadline Unknown for 2021. Natural disasters cause thousands of deaths annually, and in 2013 alone caused over $130 billion in damage worldwide. There is clear societal need to better understand and mitigate the risks posed to the US by natural hazards, consistent with the mandate of the National Science Foundation (NSF) “…to promote the progress of science [and] advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare....” NSF and the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) have long supported basic research in scientific and engineering disciplines necessary to understand natural hazards and extreme events, including through the Interdisciplinary Research in Hazards and Disasters (Hazards SEES) program and multiple core programs in the GEO Directorate. PREEVENTS is designed as a logical successor to Hazards SEES and is one element of the NSF-wide Risk and Resilience activity, which has the overarching goal of improving predictability and risk assessment, and increasing resilience, in order to reduce the impact of extreme events on our life, society, and economy. PREEVENTS will provide an additional mechanism to support research and related activities that will improve our understanding of the fundamental processes underlying natural hazards and extreme events in the geosciences. PREEVENTS is focused on natural hazards and extreme events, and not on technological or deliberately human-caused hazards. The PREEVENTS portfolio will include the potential for disciplinary and multidisciplinary research at all scales, particularly aimed at areas ripe for significant near- or medium-term advances. PREEVENTS seeks projects that will (1) enhance understanding of the fundamental processes underlying natural hazards and extreme events on various spatial and temporal scales, as well as the variability inherent in such hazards and events, and (2) improve our capability to model and forecast such hazards and events. All projects requesting PREEVENTS support must be primarily focused on these two targets. In addition, PREEVENTS projects will improve our understanding of the effects of natural hazards and extreme events and will enable development, with support by other programs and organizations, of new tools to enhance societal preparedness and resilience against such impacts.

Preliminary Proposals DUE FEBRUARY 14, 2017. Full proposals due May 16, 2017. 2018 grants unknown. Diversity – of thought, perspective, and experience – is essential for excellence in research and innovation in science and engineering.[1] Full participation of all of America’s STEM talent is critical to the advancement of science and engineering for national security, health, and prosperity. America’s STEM talent pool has a competitive advantage when it is enriched by diversity of perspectives and approaches, which in turn enriches knowledge across STEM.Women, persons with disabilities, African Americans/Blacks, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, Native Pacific Islanders, and persons from economically disadvantaged backgrounds have been historically underrepresented and underserved in various fields of science and engineering across all levels – from preK-12 to long-term workforce participation. [2],[3] Inclusion of talent from all sectors of American society is necessary for the health and vitality of the science and engineering community and its societal relevance. NSF INCLUDES is a comprehensive initiative to enhance U.S. leadership in science and engineering discovery and innovation by seeking and effectively developing STEM talent from all sectors and groups in our society. Over several years, NSF will invest in alliances and build a national network to achieve significant impact at scale in transforming STEM education and workforce pathways so they are fully and widely inclusive and equitable opportunities for participation are provided. New networks, systems, and partnerships as well as approaches to using data for change will be hallmarks of NSF INCLUDES. The initiative will serve as a testbed in real time over the next ten years for designing, implementing, studying, and refining change models that are based on collective impact-style approaches, and on networks that support adoption and adaptation at scale. This approach is a substantial shift away from current practice, which often involves highly successful but locally focused efforts. Undertaking change through collective impact at national scale is unprecedented. Success will be evident in the formation and enactment of new policies and practices in institutions, professional societies, and scientific culture that position inclusion and equity as core values for excellence in STEM.

Deadline passed. Most recent deadline: May 19, 2022. EPA has announced the availability of up to $1.6 million in American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding to support Tribal government efforts to establish or modify programs on environmental justice, water and air quality issues. Congress made up to $1.6 million in ARP funding available to Tribes, recognizing the importance of supporting Tribal public engagement programs and related priorities that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. EPA anticipates awarding 16 to 20 grants nationwide in amounts of up to $100,000 per award. Applicants should plan for projects to begin on 1 October 2022. Learn more and apply here.

Pre-Proposal Deadline: April 20, 2023. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) announced the 2023 Request for Proposals for the America the Beautiful Challenge, a public-private grant program designed to support locally led, voluntary ecosystem restoration projects. Approximately $116 million in grant funding is available. This program will invest in the restoration of watersheds, forests and grasslands while also working toward other goals consistent with the America the Beautiful Challenge including strengthened resilience, equitable access to the outdoors, workforce development, migration corridors, habitat connectivity and collaborative conservation. The America the Beautiful Challenge coordinates funding from multiple federal agencies and private philanthropy into one competitive grant program, enabling larger, more impactful cross-boundary projects while making it easier for states, Tribes, territories, local groups, non-governmental organizations and others to apply for multiple funding sources with one application. Applicants are encouraged to develop large landscape-scale and/or cross-jurisdictional projects that advance existing conservation plans or are informed by Indigenous Traditional Knowledge. Learn more and apply here.

Deadline Passed 4/13/2018. Deadline Unknown for 2019. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world -- an astounding 5℃ in the past 100 years. Since the 1970s, 14% of Arctic sea ice has been lost, and at current rates, Arctic summer sea ice is likely to have completely disappeared by 2080. This extreme warming pattern has dangerous consequences for the millions of people who live in the Arctic, including risky travel across melting ice and tundra, and severe coastal erosion that is forcing whole communities to relocate. Indigenous populations are especially vulnerable, due to the fact that their culture, identity, language, traditional foods, and ways of life all rely heavily on Arctic land and waters. As warming proceeds, indigenous communities also must contend with growing in-migration and the expansion of the cash economy that comes from increased industrial and commercial activity. CJRF seeks to help indigenous communities in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland strengthen their resilience by building leadership and decision-making capacity; maintaining, updating and augmenting traditional knowledge; and establishing political advocacy processes. Intended outcomes include maintenance of indigenous peoples’ access to and co-management of traditional foods; and effective indigenous engagement in decision-making around relocation and industrialization. Letters of inquiry are due April 13, 2018 in order to be eligible for June consideration.

Application Deadline: May 16, 2023. The DOE Office of Indian Energy is soliciting applications for Tribes to install clean energy generating system(s) and energy efficiency measure(s) for Tribal buildings; deploy community-scale clean energy generating system(s) or energy storage on Tribal lands; or install integrated energy system(s) for autonomous operation to power essential Tribal facilities during  emergency situations or for Tribal community resilience. Individual awards vary depending on type of project with a range $100,000 to $5,000,000. This opportunity builds on the important discussions at the 7th biennial Tribal Clean Energy Summit, where U.S Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm held a nation-to-nation roundtable with Tribal leaders to share ideas and explore cost-effective approaches to clean energy that strengthen Tribal energy and economic infrastructure, address climate resilience, and build stronger and safer communities.