Grants / Department of Defense / Engineer Research and Development Center

W81EWF-24-SOI-0009: National Information Collaboration on Ecohydraulics (NICE): A Framework for Narrowing Data Gaps at the Intersection of Ecohydraulics and Fish Attributes

Closed Closed January 26, 2024 Opportunity W81EWF-24-SOI-0009 ☆ Save

This grant is closed. A newer notice from the same program is open now: ERDC Broad Agency Announcement (W912HZ26S0001). Status: Closes January 1, 2027 (55 days left). It is in our archive of Engineer Research and Development Center notices from 2023.

• Award ceiling$63,000
• Total funding$63,000
• Expected awards1
• Cost sharingNot required
• Funding typeCooperative Agreement

Key dates

Who can apply

This opportunity was open to the applicants described in the notice.

• Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)

This opportunity is restricted to non-federal partners of the Gulf Coast Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (CESU).

Is this a realistic fit?

• Past Basic, Applied, and Advanced Research in Science and Engineering awards averaged $1.1 million; this notice allows up to $63,000 per award.
• Most of the program's money (69% over five years) went to colleges and universities.
• No cost sharing or match is required.

What the grant funds

There are many locks and dams, navigation channels, and increasingly beneficial sediment-use sites across the Mississippi watershed and throughout the United States. Interest is high in understanding navigation impacts on fisheries and how navigation infrastructure can be used to manage fisheries in the role of navigation. Currently, fisheries impacts are often not explicitly accounted for in lock and dam operations. For example, nearly all dams in the Mississippi Basin and southeastern United States are, by and large, not designed to accommodate fish passage for native fish. Moreover, many of these dams are now being viewed as possible components for control and management of aquatic nuisance species. Some native fishes are now protected under provisions of the Endangered Species Act further heightening interest in the possible influence of locks and dams on fish movement. A primary challenge of the proposed work is to develop strategies that allow fish movement past locks and dams while not impacting navigation operations. The National Information Collaboration for Ecohydraulics (NICE) has been established with the mission of applying ecohydraulic principles to navigation infrastructure at multiple scales and facilitating accurate engineering forecasts of fisheries outcomes based on research and development for multiple contexts. The goal of this project is to develop a framework for an operational ecosystem viewer suitable for online deployment and daily reporting of ecosystem status at various locations. This framework will be based on scientific principles. It will include information on ecosystem attributes such as fish, but also environmental attributes such as hydraulics. In addition, this project will develop an R&D plan to guide work conducted under NICE for the next 5 years. This plan will examine current data, data gaps, and serve as a roadmap for narrow data gaps using R&D under the NICE purview. The initial funding amount will not cover all possible locations around the nation envisioned in the plan; therefore, partnering and other alternatives should be considered.

Category: Science and Technology and other Research and Development.

Applying now

This notice no longer takes applications. Apply under the newer notice, W912HZ26S0001, which is open now.

The notice on Grants.gov keeps its full text and attachments, which is useful for planning a resubmission.