FY2024 National Water Resources Research Institute Program Grants

Tuesday, April 23, 2024 - 9:45am

Summary: 

The New Hampshire Water Resources Research Center (NH WRRC) is accepting applications for the FY 2024 National Water Resources Research Institute Program grants. 
The USGS Water Resources Research Act (WRRA) program has announced 3 requests for proposals for the FY2024 104g national competition:

Those interested in applying or learning more may attend a webinar on Tuesday April 23, 2024 at 11am Eastern Time using this webinar link. 

These competitive 104g grant programs focus on “water problems and issues of a regional or interstate nature beyond those of concern only to a single State and which relate to specific program priorities identified jointly by the Secretary of the Interior and the water resources research institutes.” The due date for submissions to the NH Water Resources Research Center is 5:00 pm Tuesday May 21, 2024.  NH PIs should submit proposals to nh.wrrc@unh.edu (do not submit via grants.gov). Please also send nh.wrrc@unh.edu a courtesy email by May 14, 2024 if you intend to submit a full proposal so that we can be prepared to work with you to meet the May 30, 2024 deadline to grants.gov.  Please see the RFPs (see above), supporting documents  and visit the USGS homepage, application information page or FAQ page for further details about these programs and the application process. 

These program objectives are to: a) promote collaboration between the USGS and university scientists, b) promote the dissemination and application of research results and c) Assist in the training of scientists (students or early career faculty) in relevant water-resource fields. Any investigator at an accredited institution of higher learning is eligible to apply. Proposals may be for projects of 1 to 3 years in duration and successful applicants must match each dollar of the federal grant with one dollar from non-federal sources.

The National Competitive Grants General Program solicits proposals on the topic of improving and enhancing the nation’s water supply and availability, as well as promoting the exploration of new ideas that address or expand our understanding of water problems. Maximum award request is $310,000 in federal funds. Proposals are sought on the following specific areas of inquiry (levels of priority are not assigned):

  • National-scale evaluation of water budget: Retrospective or predictive analyses using hydroclimate-forcing data sets, with emphasis on CONUS404, which was developed in a USGS-NCAR collaboration (Rasmussen, R.M., Liu, C., Ikeda, K., Chen, F., Kim, J., Schneider, T., Gochis, D., Dugger, A., and Viger, R., 2023, Four-kilometer long-term regional hydroclimate reanalysis over the conterminous United States (CONUS), 1979-2020: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9PHPK4F). Additional guidance includes:
  • Comparison of different water budget models, evaluation of relative model predictive skill and identification of specific opportunities for improvements.
  • Incorporation of how uncertainty in hydroclimate-forcing propagates to water budget components.
  • Evaluate scale-dependent uncertainties in water-budget predictions when using CONUS404. (e.g. How much more uncertainty at HUC12 versus HUC 8, which variables, and are specific uncertainties regional?)
  • Socieoeconomics: Integrate ongoing USGS research and data collection in order to assess socioeconomic and ecological vulnerability to compounding extreme events and develop adaptation measures. This proposed project should undertake new research (e.g., Water Use and Social and Economic Drivers Program) to understand the vulnerability of urban (e.g., trans-basin diversions), agricultural (e.g., reservoir management), and ecological (e.g., endangered species) water-use sectors to drought and compounding hazards such as wildfire. Additional guidance includes:
    • Qualitative techniques to develop parameters or metrics for feedback inputs into hydrologic models (e.g. surveys/interviews/focus groups to understand how consumers change their behaviors around water use in response to supply shortages).
    • Construct utility functions of actual decision-makers/consumers that are used in the model, rather than hypothetical versions.
    • Exploration of close-loop versus open-loop hydrologic models in different geographic contexts.
  • Model advancement: Explore methods to develop new hydrologic models in a geographic area and provide information on promising modeling approaches to inform science questions specific to a region. Examples include:
    • Natural language processing methods to assimilate and identify succinct hydrologic science issues in an area of interest, and additional AI/ML to provide a modeling pathway based on attributes of hydrologic model capacities.)
    • Rapid model development methods to quickly provide information regarding potential high-value data collection and guide further model development in a given geographic area.

The National Competitive Grants PFAS program - The challenges and opportunities of understanding the effects of per-and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) substances on water resources are poorly understood, despite the real and growing effect of this group of man-made substances on water quality and the resultant exposure to humans, other organisms, and ecosystems. Research is needed to better understand these interactions and guide management decisions that will improve water resources at the regional or national scale. Maximum award request is $310,000 in federal funds. Proposals are sought on the following specific areas of inquiry (levels of priority are not assigned):

  • Media-specific methods: Enhanced methods for detection on specific media, with a clear indication of
    • new or different compounds
    • new or different methodological approaches
    • lower detection levels for specific media or compounds, especially with respect to EPA health guidelines for PFOA (Perfluorooctanoic Acid) and PFOS (Perfluorooctane Sulfonate)
    • Media of interest include (in ranked order) (1) Tissues/plasma, (2) sediment, (3) air or interfaces, (4) water.
  • Atmospheric sources: Improved understanding of atmospheric exchange in PFAS distribution and fate. This may include methods to determine transport of PFAS to the atmosphere and to subsequent receiving waters, such as a water method that determines "new" compounds based on their likelihood to occur in the atmosphere.
  • Processes oriented at molecular level: Process-oriented research of PFAS fate, transport, and effects, with emphasis on molecular-level understanding of PFAS precursor transformation, sorption dynamics, or mechanisms of bioaccumulation and(or) biological/ecological effects, or biodegradation of PFAS along source to receptor pathways and identification of mitigation methods.