Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Piedmont, South Atlantic Coast CESU | G17AS00018

Opportunity Information: Apply for G17AS00018

This grant opportunity, titled "Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Piedmont, South Atlantic Coast CESU" (Funding Opportunity Number G17AS00018), is a discretionary Department of the Interior award managed by the U.S. Geological Survey and issued as a cooperative agreement. It was created on November 30, 2016, with an original closing date of December 16, 2016. The funding activity is categorized under Science and Technology and other Research and Development (CFDA 15.808). The opportunity anticipated making a single award, with an award ceiling of $20,902, and eligibility was listed broadly as "Others," with additional eligibility details referenced in the full announcement.

The core purpose of the project is applied research and development: designing and producing a web-based decision-support tool aimed at improving how Endangered Species Act (ESA) recovery decisions are made. The tool is intended to capture the essential elements that factor into recovery-related decision-making and then use that structure to propose sets of actions (decision sets) that best align with the ESA mandate to recover listed species. In practical terms, the project is about turning complex, multi-factor recovery planning into a more transparent, structured, and repeatable process that can help managers choose among many possible actions in a way that is defensible and clearly tied to recovery outcomes.

A major emphasis of the project is risk reduction in decision-making. By formalizing how recovery decisions are evaluated and compared, the decision model is expected to lower the chance of missed opportunities, such as overlooking high-impact recovery actions or failing to act in time when windows for conservation action are short. It is also framed as a way to reduce the burden associated with pending legal issues, reflecting the reality that ESA-related decisions are frequently scrutinized and contested. A structured decision-support tool can help agencies document reasoning, show how tradeoffs were considered, and demonstrate consistency with statutory requirements, which can be valuable when decisions face legal or administrative review.

The project also seeks to expand evaluation criteria beyond recovery compliance alone by enabling decisions to be assessed in relation to a core U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) value: biodiversity. This signals an intention to incorporate broader ecological considerations into the decision framework, allowing managers to look at how recovery actions may affect ecosystems, communities, and related conservation priorities, rather than evaluating actions in isolation or on a single-species basis.

Collaboration is another central theme. The effort explicitly promotes interagency collaboration and shared management approaches, and it builds on an existing prototype that already involved PR-DENR (Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources). Partnership data from that earlier work are included in the decision dataset, meaning the project is not starting from scratch; instead, it is refining and updating a working concept with real partner inputs already embedded in the underlying data.

The scope includes travel to Georgia to explore how the tool could be applied in other field offices and to assess the feasibility of integrating habitat-focused tools that have been piloted in that office with the recovery-focused decision tool. That element highlights a practical implementation goal: testing transferability across offices and improving interoperability with related decision or habitat planning systems, which is often a key hurdle for decision-support software in federal programs.

Overall, the opportunity supports FWS endangered species recovery programs by addressing decisions that cut across multiple ecosystems and multiple threats at landscape scales. It is aimed at shifting species management from a reactive posture, where actions are taken case-by-case under pressure, to a proactive and strategic approach that can prioritize among many competing recovery actions. The underlying premise is that without a structured prioritization framework, recovery programs risk being driven by urgency, litigation timelines, or fragmented information rather than by an integrated assessment of what combination of actions is most likely to produce durable recovery outcomes.

• The Department of the Interior, Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Piedmont, South Atlantic Coast CESU" 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 Nov 30, 2016.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Dec 16, 2016. (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 $20,902.00 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).

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