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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is focused on providing the essential and highest quality environmental information vital to our Nation's safety, prosperity and resilience. Toward this goal, the agency conducts and supports weather and climate research, oceanic and atmospheric observations, modeling, information management, assessments, interdisciplinary decision-support research, outreach, education, and partnership development. Climate variability and change present society with significant economic, health, safety, and security challenges and opportunities. In meeting these challenges, and as part of NOAA's climate portfolio within the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), the Climate Program Office (CPO) advances scientific understanding, monitoring, and prediction of climate and its impacts, to enable effective decisions. This funding opportunity focuses on the Climate Variability and Predictability (CVP) Program. The CVP Program supports research that enhances our process-level understanding of the climate system through observation, modeling, analysis, and field studies. This vital knowledge is needed to improve climate models and predictions so that scientists and society can better anticipate the impacts of future climate variability and change. To achieve its mission, the CVP Program invests in NOAA mission-critical research, which is carried out at NOAA and other federal laboratories, NOAA Cooperative Institutes, academic institutions and private sector research entities. The Program also coordinates its sponsored projects with major national and international scientific bodies including the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) - especially CLIVAR (Climate and Ocean Variability, Predictability and Change) and GEWEX (Global Energy and Water Cycle Exchanges) programs - and the U.S. Global Change Research program (USGCRP). Specific details of this funding opportunity are contained in the Full Announcement Text.

Healthy and productive fisheries are an essential component of the U.S. economy. There is increasing concern about the impacts of climate variability and change on fish stocks, fisheries, and marine ecosystems in the U.S. Climate variability and change influences many parameters (e.g. extreme events, winds, ocean temperatures, stratification, currents, coastal precipitation, inundation, etc.) that directly and indirectly affect marine ecosystem conditions including the abundance, distribution, and productivity of fish stocks that support economically important fisheries. Sustainable fisheries management in a changing climate requires an improved understanding of how climate, fishing, and other stressors interact to affect fish stocks (including their habitats and prey), fisheries and fishing-dependent communities. To address these issues of growing concern, in 2014 the Office of Atmospheric Research (OAR) Climate Program Office and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Office of Science and Technology launched a new partnership to advance understanding of climate-related impacts on fish or other species that support economically important fisheries and fishing communities. The goal is to inform sustainable fisheries management and promote resilience of the nation's fish stocks and fisheries in a changing climate. For FY17, this OAR/NMFS partnership, through the Coastal and Ocean Climate Applications (COCA) Program, will continue to take a regional approach to improving the resilience and adaptation of fisheries in a changing climate by soliciting proposals under two competitions. The first competition solicits proposals for projects in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME) and the second competition solicits proposals for projects in the Northeast US Continental Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem (NESLME).

The USFWS is seeking proposals on behalf of the Aleutian and Bering Sea Islands Landscape Conservation Cooperative hereafter shown as ABSI LCC. The Mission of the ABSI LCC is to promote coordination, dissemination, and development of applied science to inform conservation of natural and cultural resources in the face of climate change and other landscape scale stressors. This Notice of Funding Availability has multiple Topics. For each the following topics we envision research efforts will primary consist of syntheses and modelling based on existing data and/or climate projections but we are also interested in possible proposals involving field research if leveraging of that existing work sufficiently addresses one or more of our topics. The following four topic areas have been identified by the ABSI Steering Committee as key information needs for managers and communities in the ABSI region relative to climate change: Topic 1: We are interested in an evaluation of how climate change might disrupt trophic function important for key prey species of importance to marine mammals. We are specifically interested in an exploration of shifts in timing and spatial distribution of primary and secondary productivity in areas important to marine mammal species. Topic 2: We want to understand how climate change might facilitate the expansion of parasites, diseases, or other pathogens in marine species important to human communities within the ABSI region. We are interested in syntheses, modelling, projections, etc. that specifically identify climatic thresholds (e.g., ocean temperatures or sea ice extent) that define the ranges of pathogens and the potential for those ranges to change or expand given future projected conditions. We are particularly interested in projects in this topic area that focus on pathogens that affect marine species important to subsistence harvest practices and human health in the region. Topic 3: We want to understand the potential negative effects of c

The mission of the NOAA Climate and Societal Interactions (CSI) research portfolio is to inform improvements in planning and preparedness in diverse socio-economic regions and sectors throughout the U.S. and abroad via the integration of knowledge and information about extreme weather and climate. Our research advances the nation's understanding of climate-related risks and vulnerabilities across sectors and regions - within and beyond our borders - and the development of tools to foster more informed decision making. These efforts support NOAA's vision to create and sustain enhanced resilience in ecosystems, communities, and economies. The overall objectives of the CSI portfolio are the following: 1. Support innovative, applicable, and transferable approaches for decision making, especially for risk characterization in the context of a variable and changing climate; 2. Establishment of a network of regionally scoped, long-term efforts to inform climate risk management and decision making; and 3. Promotion of the transfer of climate knowledge, tools, products, and services within NOAA, across the federal government, nationally, and internationally.

The Wildlife Conservation Society is inviting proposals from nonprofit conservation organizations through its Climate Adaptation Fund. Building on the society's 120-year history in long-term conservation efforts, the WCS Climate Adaptation Fund will award up to $2.5 million in grants in 2018. The grants are designed to strengthen the capacity of wildlife and ecosystems to adapt to climate change by enhancing dynamic ecological processes and ecosystem functionality (as opposed to projects that benefit a particular species or landscape attribute). Projects should focus on improving the adaptive capacity of ecosystems rather than simply conserving or restoring their historic conditions. Projects that implement joint mitigation and adaptation (JMA) approaches are encouraged. To be eligible, applicants must be a U.S.-based nonprofit conservation organization with 501(c)(3) status that incorporates climate adaptation science into its proposal and uses strategic communications to increase the conservation impact of its results. The fund also seeks on-the-ground projects using strategic communications to leverage broader impact through replication of adaptation practices across landscapes.

The goal of this cooperative project is to implement an NPS framework to address climate change impacts on cultural resources in the Intermountain Region (IMR). Building on Phase I research (2014) that compiled existing climate change models and data for cultural resources in the IMR, the objectives of this Phase II DIP are to: 1). Update Phase I compilation of data to review and incorporate recent NPS work on climate change and cultural resources at the national and regional scales; and 2). Complete a climate change vulnerability assessment for cultural resources in national parks of the Intermountain Region based on current data and norms established by the NPS. This regionally scoped project, conducted by a team of natural and cultural resources experts, will produce and disseminate information that can be used by site managers to plan for protection of vulnerable cultural resources in conjunction with the NPS Climate Change Response Program.

The RISA program supports the development of knowledge, expertise, and abilities of decision-makers to plan and prepare for climate variability and change. Through regionally-focused and interdisciplinary research and engagement teams, RISA builds and expands the Nation's capacity to adapt and become resilient to extreme weather events and climate change. RISA teams accomplish this through co-developed applied research and partnerships with public and private communities. A central tenet of the RISA program is that learning about climate adaptation and resilience is facilitated by and sustained across a wide range of experts, practitioners, and the public. As such, the RISA program supports a network of people, prioritizing wide participation in learning by doing, learning through adapting, and managing risk with uncertain information. Early decades of the program focused on understanding the use of climate information at regional scales (e.g., through experimental seasonal outlooks), improving predictions and scenarios, building capacity for drought early warning, and advancing the science of climate impact assessments. More recently, emphasis has shifted to address the growing urgency to advance approaches that tackle the complex societal issues surrounding adaptation planning, implementation, and building community resilience. To do so, RISA continues to prioritize collaborative approaches that incorporate multiple knowledge sources and integrate social, physical, and natural science, resulting in long-term support of and increased capacity for communities.

This program was created to ensure that the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center is responsive to the research and management needs of Federal and State agencies to provide science and technical support regarding the impacts of climate change in fish, wildlife, plants and ecological processes. National coordination of research and modeling at regional centers will ensure uniformity of downscaling and forecasting models and standardized information to support management of fish and wildlife resources and regional partnership collaborations. The Climate Science Centers will provide access to the expertise at cooperating universities and supports the mission of the Climate Science Center Program.

The goal of research funded under the interdisciplinary P2C2 solicitation is to utilize key geological, chemical, atmospheric (gas in ice cores), and biological records of climate system variability to provide insights into the mechanisms and rate of change that characterized Earth's past climate variability, the sensitivity of Earth's climate system to changes in forcing, and the response of key components of the Earth system to these changes.  Important scientific objectives of P2C2 are to: 1) provide comprehensive paleoclimate data sets that can serve as model test data sets analogous to instrumental observations; and 2) enable transformative syntheses of paleoclimate data and modeling outcomes to understand the response of the longer-term and higher magnitude variability of the climate system that is observed in the geological and cryospheric records. 

The Environmental Justice Small Grants (EJSG) Program provides funding for eligible applicants for projects that address local environmental and public health issues within an affected community. The EJSG Program is designed to help communities understand and address exposure to multiple environmental harms and risks. The long-term goals of the EJSG Program are to help build the capacity of communities with environmental justice concerns and to create self-sustaining, community-based partnerships that will continue to improve local environments in the future. The fiscal year 2015 program will consider proposals supporting community-based preparedness and resilience efforts (community climate resiliency). The goal is to recognize the critical role of localized efforts in helping communities shape climate change strategies to avoid, lessen, or delay the risks and impacts associated with climate change. An overarching goal of including this emphasis is to help bolster the efforts of underrepresented communities to address climate change vulnerabilities and develop solutions.

The Wildlife Conservation Society's Climate Adaptation Fund supports projects that implement effective interventions for wildlife adaptation to climate change. Grants of $50,000 to $250,000 are provided to nonprofit conservation organizations for applied, on-the-ground projects focused on implementing priority conservation actions for climate adaptation at a landscape scale. In 2018, the Fund is inviting applications for projects that implement joint mitigation and adaptation approaches, in addition to the continuing priority to support wildlife adaptation projects in both urban and rural landscapes. The Fund prioritizes projects that manage dynamic ecological processes, landscape functionality, and species assemblages, rather than those aimed at maintaining historic conditions or individual species. Grants are provided to U.S.-based nonprofit conservation organizations for projects within the 50 states and six U.S. territories. Pre-proposal application forms are due April 6, 2018. Visit the Wildlife Conservation Society's website to download the Request for Proposals.

The Bureau of Reclamation's Technical Service Center (TSC) will collaborate with the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in the development of a numerical evapotranspiration model (ET Demands) for estimating climate change impacts on agricultural and urban landscape irrigation demands. The results of the climate change impacts on water demands coming out of this collaborative effort will be published and served on a website that will be available to the public. The results will be used in Reclamation's Water SMART Program Basin Studies and West Wide Climate Risk Assessments Program Impact Assessments and available to water managers across the western U.S. to use the results for other planning efforts aimed at identifying strategies to mitigate climate change impacts.

Rare, Conservation International, National Geographic, The Nature Conservancy, The United Nations Development Programme, and the World Wildlife Fund have teamed up to launch The Solution Search Contest: Climate Change Needs Behavior Change. This contest is designed to reward successful strategies for helping consumers reduce their carbon footprint through behavior change. The contest is open to all organizations worldwide who have a proven solution in working with people to adopt climate-friendly behaviors. The focus is on sustainable solutions that could be replicated by other communities and can continue into the future. Two grand prizes of $25,000 will be awarded, in addition to a prize of $5,000 given to the best entry received by June 1, 2018. Finalists will also receive support to attend a capacity building workshop and the awards ceremony in Washington, DC. Visit the Solution Search contest page to submit an entry by August 7, 2018, or email info@solutionsearch.org with any questions.

Energy cooperation is a central element of the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership. Recognizing the need to address climate change, ensure mutual energy security, and build a clean energy economy that drives investment, job creation, and economic growth; India and the United States launched the U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) on November 24, 2009 under the U.S.-India Memorandum of Understanding to enhance cooperation on Energy Security, Energy Efficiency, Clean Energy and Climate Change. As a priority initiative under the PACE umbrella, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Government of India signed an agreement to establish the Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center (JCERDC) on November 4, 2010. The JCERDC is designed to promote clean energy innovation by teams of scientists and engineers from India and the United States.

Energy cooperation is a central element of the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership. Recognizing the need to address climate change, ensure mutual energy security, and build a clean energy economy that drives investment, job creation, and economic growth; India and the United States launched the U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) on November 24, 2009 under the U.S.-India Memorandum of Understanding to enhance cooperation on Energy Security, Energy Efficiency, Clean Energy and Climate Change. As a priority initiative under the PACE umbrella, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Government of India signed an agreement to establish the Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center (JCERDC) on November 4, 2010. The JCERDC is designed to promote clean energy innovation by teams of scientists and engineers from India and the United States.

The Atmospheric System Research Program (ASR) in the Climate and Environmental Sciences Division (CESD), Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) of the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), supports research on key cloud, aerosol, precipitation, and radiative transfer processes that has the potential to improve the accuracy of regional and global climate models. The ASR program hereby announces its interest in research grant applications for observational, data analysis, and/or modeling studies that use data from CESD, including the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility and the ASR program, to improve understanding and model representation of convective cloud processes, boundary layer cloud processes, and secondary organic aerosol processes, and to pursue ASR-relevant research using observations from recent ARM field campaigns.

U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center (NCCWSC) requests a three year cooperative agreement for a project titled: "Assessing the impact of future climate on Hawaii's aquatic ecosystems." NCCWSC synthesizes and integrates climate change impact data and develops tools that the Department of Interior's managers and partners can use when managing the Department's land, water, fish and wildlife, and cultural heritage resources.

The overarching purpose of the program is to help create and train the next generation of leading researchers needed for climate studies. Anticipating the large amounts of data that was gathered from NOAA efforts, such as TOGA and TOGA COARE field programs, the research community required the attention of an enlarged workforce here and abroad. In a larger context, it was necessary to attract new PhD's to the community in order to establish the seeds of scientific leadership needed in the field of climate and global change research. 

This project will be conducted in two phases as funds become available. Overall, the entire project will educate an array of audiences to the effects of climate change in two of Alaskas National Parks and Preserves in an interactive online fashion as told by those who have experienced or observed changes over time. It will capture through oral interviews the effects of climate change in both parks, providing opportunity for audiences to draw comparisons to two distinct regions of Alaska. Where applicable, interviews will pay particular attention to: vegetation succession; retreating glaciers; vertical advance of tree lines; changes to coastal lagoons and formation of sea ice; shoreline erosion; permafrost melt; and shifts in phenology.

One important effect of global climate change is the reduction in naturally stored water resources which, for Peru, means melting glaciers and a decrease in the size of highland wetlands (paramos). The loss of these areas decreases water availability for upland and lowland communities and increases the potential for Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs). This APS seeks to stimulate adaptation projects that assist indigenous mountain communities, rural and urban areas, and local and regional governments potentially affected by GLOFs or changes in water availability. General project outcomes will be long-term, sustainable approaches that help reduce the impact of climate change on glaciated and highland wetland ecosystems and on those that depend on these ecosystems' services.

The Amazon plays a major role in regulating regional and global climate. Some models suggest that if the Amazon experiences 20 percent to 25 percent deforestation, some forested areas would convert to tropical savanna, impacting global climatic stability. Deforestation is currently at 17 percent, making the Amazon's protection and management critical for both the people who call it home and for the rest of the planet. Long-term protection of the Amazon requires active participation and leadership from the communities that live within and near it. These communities are often deeply reliant on forest resources and also often have an intricate understanding of local ecological relationships that can influence the success of conservation efforts. Numerous studies have found that lower levels of deforestation are associated with Indigenous territories versus other protected areas. Sustainable forest conservation requires empowering and supporting these communities, enabling them to maximize the effectiveness of their conservation efforts while also improving their own lives and futures.