Funding Wizard

The project will involve the following objectives in effort gather needed information to better understand flowering rush invasion in a leading-edge population. This information is needed to prevent and remediate flowering rush infestations in Lake Umatilla and Lake Celilo, and to contribute to the growing body of knowledge for flowering rush treatment and prevention available to land and water managers: 1. Assist John Day and The Dalles Ranger staff in conducting comprehensive aquatic invasive species surveys, focusing on flowering rush, throughout Lake Umatilla and Lake Celilo. All locations that favor potential establishment (slow-moving, shallow water) will be documented, even if flowering rush is not currently present. Site conditions (native plant community, disturbance regimes, abiotic conditions, etc) will be described in detail to provide a baseline assessment should the area become colonized in the future. This will help to better understand establishment methods and dynamics.2. Treat flowering rush infestations where feasible based on water depth – this may include careful hand pulling in shallow water/on shorelines or covering small infestations/single plants with weighted weed mats specifically designed for flowering rush. Continued research on effective manual treatment strategies is needed; for example, plant phenological stage and treatment timing may influence treatment efficacy. Other treatment methods may be proposed by the awarded partner and investigated for efficacy.3. Provide treatment recommendations and control strategies for other aquatic invasive plants identified during the surveys. Currently, the focus is on flowering rush, but other aquatic plants may also be targeted for control. Other invasive aquatic plants in the region include Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum) and curly-leaf pondweed (Potamogeton crispus) among others. Abundance of these other invasive species is not well understood near Corps-managed recreation areas in Lake Umatilla and Lake Celilo. This information, and proposed control strategies, would allow for greater preparedness in reducing nonnative species populations in the region.4. Document all existing infestation locations, potential future locations based on flow rate and model, and treatment methodologies employed through a final report and provide this to John Day/The Dalles Ranger staff and partners in the Flowering Rush Working Group.

Background: Understanding how Global Positioning System (GPS) signals are influenced by vegetation structure allows for the determination of how specific technologies might be affected in certain forested environments. The work we are seeking shall involve creating detailed vegetation structure models and assessment of GPS coverage to support assured position, navigation, timing (APNT) activities and tests in forested and mixed topographic relief areas. Brief Description of Anticipated Work: Provide detailed vegetation data analysis for assessment of loss and degraded GPS signals which could include canopy structure, speciation, and dimensionality. Applicant would create and supply these data prior to APNT field tests and would provide technical assistance in analyzing vegetation during tests. 2) Provide field base of operations for position, navigation, and timing experiments including outdoor space, laboratory space (computer, wet, dry), wooded and non-wooded terrain drives, and collaboration space. Facilities must have high speed internet and availability for web conferencing. Local geodetic control monuments to aid in measurements and terrain input for maneuvers are required. 3) Provide access to spatial data including current and detailed aerial imagery and other field systems (web based), to assist in identifying and “pre-delineate” areas that would not be suitable for navigation experiments. 4) Acquire and provide access to on-site real-time data for experiments including, continually operated reference sites/real-time kinematic (CORS/RTK) GPS and real-time meteorological data with known geodetic control. 5) Provide access to dormitory facilities for use in multiday experiments. 6) Provide vessel support and crew for testing sensors for aquatic navigation

DE-FOA-00002458 This is a Notice of Intent to Issue Funding Opportunity Announcement No.: DE-FOA-0002402 “Carbon Capture R&D: Bench Scale Testing of Direct Air Capture Components (TRL 3) and Initial Engineering Design for Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage Systems from Air (TRL 6)” The NOI is for informational purposes only; the Department of Energy is not seeking comments on the information in this notice and full applications are not being accepted at this time. Any information contained in this notice is subject to change. If released, the intent of this FOA is to support the Department of Energy’s Carbon Capture program by developing lower cost, scalable technologies for carbon dioxide capture from air. There are two anticipated Areas of Interest (AOI): AOI 1 - Bench-Scale Testing of Structured Material Systems or Component Designs (TRL 3) for Optimized Direct Air Capture. AOI 2 - Initial Engineering Design of Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage Systems (TRL 6) for Direct Air Capture

Background: Aquatic nuisance species, including harmful algae, impact US waterways (including those maintained by USACE), infrastructure, and associated resources across the Nation; it’s estimated that Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) cause an estimated $1B per year in lost tourism revenue alone. In response, innovative, cost-effective, and scalable technologies for early detection, prevention, and management of aquatic nuisance species are required. HABs are increasing in frequency and duration, resulting in environmental, socio-economic, and human/wildlife health concerns. Prevention and management of HABs within the Ohio River is of interest, as is research that produces knowledge and scalable HAB prevention and management tools applicable to lentic and lotic systems across the Nation. Research to address the need to improve capabilities and technologies to anticipate and rapidly respond to/mitigate HAB events is needed. Scalable physical, chemical, and/or biological HAB technologies to manage HABs are particularly needed. This project will establish an interdisciplinary collaboration between USACE and a Southern Appalachian Mountains or a North Atlantic Coast CESU network member. This collaboration will leverage resources to identify research opportunities and pursue actions necessary for accelerating the delivery of scalable HAB management technologies. This collaboration will seek to build upon and expand (but in no way duplicate) current HAB research efforts ongoing in the Ohio River and North Atlantic regions, thus leading to expanded technology transfer opportunities. Special topics of interest for this funding opportunity announcement are described as part of the “brief description of anticipated work” section below. Investigators should have demonstrated experience pertaining to HABs and aquatic nuisance species control techniques. Brief Description of Anticipated Work: Required Work Objectives: This CESU project is intended to develop and demonstrate scalable solutions that will minimize the frequency and effects of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) to our Nation’s waterways. Special topics of interest for proposals include but are not limited to: (1) scalable technologies to manage, control, and/or mitigate HABs in lentic OR lotic freshwater systems; and (2) approaches for identification of priority areas for proactive HAB management within large‑scale lotic systems (e.g., cyanobacteria “seed beds” or HAB onset “hot spots” in mainstem, tributaries or backwaters) and effective treatments for identified priority areas. This CESU project will develop and demonstrate a process or technology for the reduction of HAB events and their effects through 1) decreased HAB size, duration and frequency, 2) decreased HAB biomass and toxicity, or 3) reduced HAB biomass and toxins during or after an event, through physical, chemical, AND/OR biological processes. Successful proposals will provide compelling information illustrating that the proposed technology would be feasible for deployment to manage HABs that occur at large scales within freshwater systems. Successful proposals will also (a) clearly identify question(s) the proposed project will seek to answer (i.e., project technical objectives); (b) clearly describe the tasks and data required to answer those question(s) (i.e., data quality objectives); c) specifically address the scalable potential of the management measures or technology being proposed; and (d) describe envisioned project deliverables by task and by year. Proposals that demonstrate intent to maximize use of existing federal and state HAB programs, activities, and data are encouraged. Successful proposals will identify quantitative and qualitative success criteria for each project task and objective; identification of go/no-go decision points at the end of each year is also encouraged.

Background:The United States Army Corps of Engineers operates and maintains more than 80 flood risk management (FRM) reservoirs within the Ohio River Basin. While the primary purpose of these projects is to prevent flood damages, in the course of normal operation these projects make regular releases that augment the flow of downstream rivers and provide ancillary benefits to adjacent communities and transient users. Because of this augmentation, at certain times the flows on the Ohio River are actually higher than would have occurred naturally. These higher flows possibly provide benefits in the form of reduced treatment costs for dischargers, more hours of hydropower generation, fewer navigation delays, a more reliable water supply and other benefits that are not currently understood or captured.This effort seeks to identify and, when practicable, monetize ancillary benefits resulting from augmented flows associated with releases from multi-purpose reservoir projects. Its focus will be on the impacts and benefits associated with projects operating within the borders of the Ohio River Basin on flows and benefits located along the mainstem of the Ohio River. However, the methodologies identified should be generally applicable to augmented flows from reservoirs across the United States.At a minimum, benefits to municipal wastewater treatment plants and to water supply will be examined. Additional consideration of benefits to other industrial dischargers, navigation, hydropower and recreation are a plus, as is some discussion and consideration of the overall impacts of climate change on the benefit potential in the future. Brief description of Anticipated Work:The proposed project will describe how much of an influence the reservoir releases are having on the flows in the mainstem Ohio River and whether those increased flows are providing an economic benefit. This effort will involve the gathering of existing flow information, data reconciliation (developing processes for the filling of data gaps) and comparing observed flows and natural flows for each Ohio River mainstem lock and dam over the period of 1990 to present. This comparison will include a reporting of commonly used flow statistics which will serve as the basis for the economic analysis. The economic analysis will determine whether or not the difference between observed and natural flows is significant enough to result in positive benefits to wastewater treatment plants, water supplies and other river users. The overall effort should result in the development of repeatable analytical processes that can be applied to other reservoir influenced riverine systems across the United States. The results of the study will be presented in the form of a final report and the development of manuscripts for peer review should also be considered as appropriate.

Background: Locally-available wood offers attractive environmental benefits when used in bank stabilization. However, engineers in much of the country are uneasy using wood in bank protection designs due to lack of standard design tools based on scientifically sound information. The Engineering With Nature program has funded the development of a software update in the USACE river analysis software HEC-RAS to facilitate design and analysis of large wood in rivers. This update will plug into existing work flows and utilize familiar software for bank stabilization design and will greatly facilitate the consideration of natural wood by many more river engineers. Major Tasks Are To: (1) Identify data gaps of using large wood design for rivers and provide potential methods for addressing gaps. The CESU non-federal partner will be tasked with reaching out to appropriate agency, university, and private experts. Part of this task will be to host a 1-day interagency meeting with invited experts. The venue itself will be provided by USACE or a partner agency free of charge. It is expected that information on state of the knowledge will be presented as launching points for discussion.(2) Using information gathered from Task 1, research how to calculate driving and resisting forces on large wood in rivers. Information on best materials and practices shall be reported as well as environmental variables that impact the use of large wood in rivers. A large part of this task will be to code stand alone software to be integrated into the USACE HEC-RAS software. Requirements of the software is that it must read from the 1D hydraulic model output files in order to compute driving forces, resisting forces, and factors of safety. The software application must provide simple visualizations in cross section and plan view. It must also read from tables of wood properties which will be provided by USACE. Data will flow one way, from HEC-RAS to the application. It is not required to write information back to RAS or include options within existing tools or displays. it is to be written using WinUI, utilizing Xamel islands in WinUI to use CSIchart. Close coordination with the USACE Hydrologic Engineering Center is required, and prior experience reading HEC-RAS output is strongly desired, so the final tool can be seamlessly incorporated into RAS. In addition, the successful Recipient is to document ways the tool could be enhanced in the future for use with RAS2D.a. Note: USACE will select the equations to be coded based on feedback at the interagency meeting described above and will provide worked-out spreadsheet examples. The Recipient is not responsible to make the selection.(3) Provide a literature review and short scoping document on ways to automate high-level geomorphic assessments sufficient for deriving channel velocity and bank height. Previous experience automatically computing geomorphic values over large regions is strongly desired.(4) (Option for outyears) Develop and maintain an online platform to facilitate landowners in applying new bank stabilization methods, locating headcut locations within large watersheds, and generating stream centerlines and other enhancements to enable cross section analysis. Public Benefit: HEC-RAS is the most commonly used river analysis and design software in the world—standalone software applications added to HEC-RAS find quick adoption and use by the Public. The wood calculator will allow engineers to compute force and moment balances and factors of safety. By facilitating these computations, engineers will be more able to determine when additional anchoring is needed or when such features should not be implemented at all due to excessive hydraulic forces. This will increase the reliability and robustness of large wood designs, which should both reduce project failures and make engineers more comfortable to include wood features in bank stabilization and other projects.

The new Saudi Young Leaders Exchange Program (“SYLEP 2.0”) will leverage the success of previous iterations of SYLEP under an amended format that emphasizes in-country training for a cohort of emerging Saudi leaders, both before and after their exchange program to the United States. The SYLEP 2.0 cohort will be comprised of 20 emerging Saudi leaders (approximately 24 – 30 years old) who are active in the fields of (i) environmentalism/combatting climate change and (ii) social entrepreneurship. Note that the U.S. Embassy will be solely responsible for recruiting SYLEP 2.0 participants and for all aspects of their U.S. exchange program. The awardee under this cooperative agreement will be responsible for the program’s in-country component: organizing and implementing a series of in-person and virtual workshops that impart critical skills to the cohort and allow them to leverage their U.S. experience in developing community-based projects. SYLEP 2.0’s in-country component will consist of a series of virtual and in-person workshops for the cohort that will take place between February and June 2023. These sessions would be designed to build cohort cohesion; strengthen relations between the U.S. Embassy and participants; and impart the critical thinking, leadership, public speaking, project management, innovation, and dialogue skills necessary to become global leaders. It should include a strong American component via the participation of at least one visiting U.S. speaker/trainer and two virtual U.S. trainers. The SYLEP 2.0 cohorts would participate in an exchange program to the United States (separately organized and separately by the U.S. Embassy). Following their return to Saudi Arabia, the awardee would convene a session on brainstorming and developing capstone projects, and a final in-country workshop in fall 2023 for all participants to present capstone community projects deriving from their training and experiences in the United States in the form of a pitch competition.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – as part of its People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) Award Program – is seeking applications proposing to research, develop, design, and demonstrate solutions to real world challenges. The P3 competition highlights the use of scientific principles in creating innovative technology-based projects that achieve the mutual goals of improved quality of life, economic prosperity and protection of the planet – people, prosperity, and the planet. The EPA offers the P3 competition to respond to the needs of people in the United States (U.S.)—including those in small, rural, tribal and/or disadvantaged communities. Please see the People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) Student Design Competition website for more details about this program. Proposed projects must embody the P3 approach, which is that they have the intention and capability to simultaneously improve the quality of people’s lives, provide economic benefits and protect the environment.

The 1890 CBG is intended to strengthen teaching, research and extension programs in the food and agricultural sciences by building the institutional capacities of the 1890 Land-Grant Institutions, including Tuskegee University, West Virginia State University, and Central State University (per Section 7129 of Pub. L. 113-79). The CBG program supports projects that strengthen teaching programs in the food and agricultural sciences in the need areas of curriculum design and materials development, faculty development, and others. CBG supports projects that strengthen research and extension programs in need areas of studies and experimentation, extension program development support systems, and others. The CBG also support integrated project grants. The intent of this initiative is to increase and strengthen food and agriculture sciences at the 1890s through integration of education, research and extension. Applications submitted to CBG must address at least one of the following NIFA strategic goals: sustainable bioenergy; food security; childhood obesity prevention; or food safety. See RFA for details.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) Award Program – is seeking applications proposing to research, develop, design, and demonstrate solutions to real world challenges. The P3 competition highlights the use of scientific principles in creating innovative technology-based projects that achieve the mutual goals of improved quality of life, economic prosperity and environmental protection. The EPA offers the P3 competition in response to the environmental and public health challenges in the United States, including those in small, rural, tribal and/or underserved communities. Proposed projects must embody the P3 approach, which is that they have the intention and capability to simultaneously improve the quality of people’s lives, provide economic benefits and protect the environment