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The Environmental Studies Program (ESP) of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is offering a cooperative agreement to complete a demonstration project on Integrating DNA Profiles, Genomics and Photo-Identification data. The objective of this study is to improve the current computation capabilities for integrating DNA profiles with photo-identification records for assessment and long-term monitoring of marine mammal populations, to provide a standardized database architecture, with associated tools for primary analyses and visualization of individual genetic and genomic profiles as well as spatial-temporal records. An important component of this objective is to develop "community standards" that can be applied across multiple species, as well as multiple investigators, and that promotes data sharing and archiving. Continuation of the development of previously funded work on GeneGIS towards the development of a Web-based, collaborative collection could form a model for similar developments with other species of interest to BOEM. Section 1346 of the OCS Lands Act (OCSLA) mandates the conduct of environmental and socioeconomic studies needed for the assessment and management of environmental impacts on the human, marine, and coastal environments which may be affected by oil and gas or other mineral development. OCSLA Section 1345 authorizes the use of cooperative agreements with affected States to meet the requirements of OCSLA, including sharing of information, joint utilization of available expertise, and formation of joint monitoring arrangements to carry out applicable Federal and State laws, regulations, and stipulations relevant to outer continental shelf operations both onshore and offshore. This is not an open solicitation for proposals. The Program Announcement describes the specific project that may be awarded to a qualified organization within the Pacific Northwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Great Lakes Science Center is offering a funding opportunity for research to improve understanding of fish community variation in rivers of Ontario, Canada relative to multi-scale landscape characteristics. Natural resource managers in Canada are interested to understand how fish communities respond to human activities in catchments across a range of natural landscape contexts. To address this need, data collected in four river basins spanning a range of geologic, temperature, agriculture, urban, dam, and downstream connectivity characteristics will be investigated. Specifically, the research will investigate the relative importance of different scales of influence (e.g., local vs. valley section vs. catchment) on variation in fish community composition and structure.

The World Trout Initiative funds only groups and efforts working to restore and protect wild, self-sustainable trout, salmon and other fish species within their native range. This includes both indigenous freshwater and saltwater fish. We believe that the best way to accomplish this over the long term is by ensuring that populations have high-quality habitats and adequate stream flows, can migrate between habitats without human intervention, are not negatively impacted by hatchery and aquaculture operations, have protection from harmful non-native species and disease, and are not overharvested. We look for innovative groups that produce measurable results and work on long-term solutions to root causes of the problem. Proposed projects should be quantifiable, with specific goals, objectives and action plans, and should include measures for evaluating success.

This grant program supports: (1) training students for Master's and doctoral degrees in food, agricultural and natural resource sciences, and; (2) Special International Study or Thesis/Dissertation Research Travel Allowances (IRTA) for eligible USDA NNF beneficiaries. Awards are specifically intended to support traineeship programs that engage outstanding students to pursue and complete their degrees in USDA mission areas. Applicants provide clarity about the philosophy of their graduate training, and relevance to USDA mission sciences, NIFA priorities and national science education policies and statistics. Applications are being solicited from institutions that confer a graduate degree in at least one of the following Targeted Expertise Shortage Areas: 1) animal and plant production; 2) forest resources; 3) agricultural educators and communicators; 4) agricultural management and economics; 5) food science and human nutrition; 6) sciences for agricultural biosecurity; and 7) training in integrative biosciences for sustainable food and agricultural systems.

This grant program supports: (1) training students for Master's and doctoral degrees in food, agricultural and natural resource sciences, and; (2) Special International Study or Thesis/Dissertation Research Travel Allowances (IRTA) for eligible USDA NNF beneficiaries. Awards are specifically intended to support traineeship programs that engage outstanding students to pursue and complete their degrees in USDA mission areas. Applicants provide clarity about the philosophy of their graduate training, and relevance to USDA mission sciences, NIFA priorities and national science education policies and statistics. Applications are being solicited from institutions that confer a graduate degree in at least one of the following Targeted Expertise Shortage Areas: 1) animal and plant production; 2) forest resources; 3) agricultural educators and communicators; 4) agricultural management and economics; 5) food science and human nutrition; 6) sciences for agricultural biosecurity; and 7) training in integrative biosciences for sustainable food and agricultural systems.

The objectives of this research are to use simulated data from three or more national parks to econometrically estimate a production function where fuels and preparedness budgets are used to improve the value of the landscape. The landscape value is improved through fuel treatments aimed at hazardous fuel reductions and ecosystem improvement. It is also improved by preparedness through loss mitigation of fire affected values and by introducing fire in areas that promote ecosystem health. This research will, for the first time, quantify how the two programs (fuels and preparedness) interact to mutually improve the value of the landscape and associated natural and human resources. The second objective is to locate current programs on the econometrically derived value-added surface and to also identify how to manage increasing or declining budgets.

The objectives of this Agreement are to improve the resilience of once-forested areas under warming and drying climate by collecting seeds from trees located in BAND that appear to drought-resistant, propagating those seeds, and planting seedlings that are within the natural range of variability for the biophysical setting of BAND, but may be better suited to the warmer drier site; and to conduct research that will inform future restoration projects in post-burned areas. In accordance with Section 4.4.2.2 of MP2006, the genetic type used in these plantings would approximate the extirpated genetic type because all of the seeds will have been collected from within BAND and the seedlings will be planted within the natural range of variability for those species. Replanting would occur on sites severely burned during recent human-caused wildfires in BAND. These fires have burned with uncharacteristic severity, the extent of which is far outside the range of historical variability. Recovery along a natural successional pathway is impeded by the extent of the high-severity patches.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites grant applications for Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers (EHS CC). As intellectual hubs for environmental health research, the EHS CC is expected to be the thought leaders for the field and advance the goals of the NIEHS Strategic Plan (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/about/strategicplan/). The Core Centers provide critical research infrastructure, shared facilities, services and/or resources, to groups of investigators conducting environmental health sciences research. An EHS CC enables researchers to conduct their independently-funded individual and/or collaborative research projects more efficiently and/or more effectively. The broad overall goal of an EHS CC is to identify and capitalize on emerging issues that advance improving the understanding of the relationships among environmental exposures, human biology, and disease. The EHS CC supports community engagement and translational research as key approaches to improving public health.

The goal of this Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO) is to support the education of K-12 students and the public so they are knowledgeable of the ways in which their community can become more resilient to extreme weather events and/or other environmental hazards, and become involved in achieving that resilience. Many U.S. communities are increasingly contending with issues related to preventing, withstanding, and recovering from disruptions caused by extreme weather and other environmental hazards (U.S. Department of Commerce FY2014-FY2018 Strategic Plan). These hazards include but are not limited to severe storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, heavy precipitation events, persistent drought, heat waves, increased global temperatures, acidification of the ocean, and sea level rise (Weather-ready Nation: NOAA's National Weather Service Strategic Plan 2011; Melillo et al., 2014). These extreme weather and climate events put stress on infrastructure, ecological systems, and the humans that live in the impacted places. U.S. communities can become more resilient to such events by exploring the hazards they face, assessing their specific vulnerabilities and risks, considering options, prioritizing and planning, and finally taking action (U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit). This process is typically performed by scientists and municipal planners, but in order for resilience to occur, other members of a community must have some understanding of the hazards they face and how to mitigate them, both at the individual and the community level.

The purpose of the BRAG Program is to support the generation of new information that will assist Federal regulatory agencies in making science-based decisions about the environmental effects of introducing organisms genetically engineered (GE) by recombinant nucleic acid techniques. Such organisms can include plants, microorganisms (including fungi, bacteria, and viruses), arthropods, fish, birds, mammals, and other animals excluding humans. Investigations of effects on both managed and natural environments are relevant. The BRAG program accomplishes its purpose by providing Federal regulatory agencies with relevant scientific information.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) will support research using population-based model organism resources for environmental health science and toxicology questions. This FOA is particularly interested in the interplay between environment, genetics, and epigenetics and the identification and understanding of host susceptibility to environmental exposures, relevant to human disease outcomes.

The Engineering for Civil Infrastructure (ECI) program supports fundamental research that will shape the future of our nation's constructed civil infrastructure, subjected to and interacting with the natural environment, to meet the needs of humans. In this context, research driven by radical rethinking of traditional civil infrastructure in response to emerging technological innovations, changing population demographics, and evolving societal needs is encouraged. The ECI program focuses on the physical infrastructure, such as the soil-foundation-structure-envelope-nonstructural building system; geostructures; and underground facilities. It seeks proposals that advance knowledge and methodologies within geotechnical, structural, architectural, materials, coastal, and construction engineering, especially that include collaboration with researchers from other fields, including, for example, biomimetics, bioinspired design, advanced computation, data science, materials science, additive manufacturing, robotics, and control theory. Research may explore holistic building systems that view construction, geotechnical, structural, and architectural design as an integrated system; adaptive building envelope systems; nonconventional building materials; breakthroughs in remediated geological materials; and transformational construction processes. Principal investigators are encouraged to consider civil infrastructure subjected to and interacting with the natural environment under “normal” operating conditions; intermediate stress conditions (such as deterioration, and severe locational and climate conditions); and extreme single or multi natural hazard events (including earthquakes, windstorms, tsunamis, storm surges, sinkholes, subsidence, and landslides).

The Geosciences and Education and Human Resources Directorates are partnering to advance and develop understanding of learning environments that build upon the rich interdisciplinary resources emerging from polar investments. To that end, the Office of Polar Programs (OPP), the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) and the Division of Research on Learning (DRL) encourage proposals that will leverage the extensive National Science Foundation (NSF) investment in polar sciences and infrastructure, and STEM education research and development, to promote an informed citizenry and the next generation of polar scientists. In order to advance polar science educational opportunities, OPP, DUE and DRL will accept and review proposals for research and development projects that facilitate access to polar research efforts in (1) undergraduate education, (2) informal science education or (3) formal PK-12 science or math education

The purpose of this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) is to: 1) obtain a better understanding of the factors contributing to disparities in vaccination coverage observed between adolescents living in rural areas compared to adolescents living in urban areas within the United States for all recommended vaccines, with a special emphasis on human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine; and 2) implement and evaluate an intervention(s) to improve vaccination coverage among adolescents living in rural areas.

With ten thousand members and two hundred and fifty "grottos" (chapters), the National Speleological Society is the largest organization in the world focused on the exploration, study, and protection of caves and their environments. For more than seventy years, NSS has promoted safe and responsible caving practices, effective cave and karst management, speleology, and conservation. To advance this mission, NSS awards Research Grants of up to $1,500 to qualified individuals or teams for research in cave-related branches of study. This includes but is not limited to the natural sciences (e.g., cave biology, geology, paleontology, and hydrology), social sciences (e.g., archaeology), and the humanities (e.g., speleological history). Interdisciplinary proposals are encouraged. Preference will be given to projects with the potential to generate new information and insights that are suitable for submission to peer-reviewed publications. Proposals may be submitted at any time. Funding decisions are made twice annually, in January and June. Proposals should be received at least one month in advance to be considered. To be considered for January 2018 funding, applications should be received no later than December 1, 2017.

The Russell Sage Foundation (RSF) has long had the mission to improve social and living conditions in the United States. It pursues this goal by supporting outstanding research in the social sciences that explores how social, economic, and political factors affect the lives of Americans and their children. Support of such research remains the Foundation's core focus. RSF also has a long history of encouraging new scientific advances to strengthen the methods, data, and theoretical core of the social sciences. Two recent intellectual developments have prompted RSF to launch a special research initiative that integrates knowledge from the biological and social sciences. First, there has been a paradigm shift in the life sciences, spurred by the realization that many biological processes, rather than being fixed, immutable mechanisms that consign people to particular life outcomes, are instead fluid, dynamic responses to features of the social and physical environments humans inhabit. Second, this shift led researchers to launch interdisciplinary studies that seek to integrate approaches from the social and biological sciences, recognizing the potential for a deeper understanding of how social inequalities are initiated, maintained, and transmitted from one generation to the next.

In 2018, the foundation will award grants of up to $20,000 to support projects that enrich mankind's understanding of and concern for aquatic environments; increase understanding of sport diving physics and physiology and add to the scientific understanding of man's relationship and ability to survive in the underwater environment; and/or improve understanding of, and response to, hazards to humans and ecosystems related to climate change in coastal and ocean environments. Generally, the foundation will not fund overhead or other indirect expenses.

In 2018, the foundation will award grants of up to $20,000 to support projects that enrich mankind's understanding of and concern for aquatic environments; increase understanding of sport diving physics and physiology and add to the scientific understanding of man's relationship and ability to survive in the underwater environment; and/or improve understanding of, and response to, hazards to humans and ecosystems related to climate change in coastal and ocean environments. Generally, the foundation will not fund overhead or other indirect expenses.

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 environmental and human health protection needs of people in the United States, including those in small, rural, tribal and/or disadvantaged communities.

The NSF Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) in collaboration with AAAS will offer an Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR) webinar focusing on opportunities for funding in the IUSE: EHR program, specifically associated with expectations of the new IUSE solicitation, NSF 19-601. An audio archive and slides will be posted after the webinar at https://aaas-iuse.org. The IUSE: EHR program "seeks to promote novel, creative, and transformative approaches to generating and using new knowledge about STEM teaching and learning to improve STEM education for all undergraduates." The program supports proposals interested in improving undergraduate education, developing faculty expertise, preparing K-12 teachers, and providing all undergraduate students with STEM competencies and a basic understanding of STEM concepts and principles. All projects must contribute to the body of knowledge about what works in undergraduate STEM education and the conditions that lead to improved STEM teaching and learning.