The U.S. Geological Survey plans to award up to $2 million in cooperative agreements to support participation in the National Ground-Water Monitoring Network (NGWMN) in Federal Fiscal Year 2019.
After evaluation of proposals from the Program Announcement that closed in November 2018, there is still funding available for Fiscal Year 2019.The NGWMN plans to issue a second Program Announcement for 2019 with up to $700,000 available for NGWMN data providers.
The USGS is working with the Federal Advisory Committee on Water Information’s (ACWI) Subcommittee on Ground Water (SOGW) to develop and administer the NGWMN. The NGWMN is designed as a cooperative groundwater data collection, management, and reporting system that will be based on data from selected wells in existing federal, state, tribal, and local groundwater monitoring networks. The network is envisioned as a long-term collaborative partnership among federal and non-federal data providers that will help address present and future groundwater management questions facing the nation. The NGWMN will provide the data needed to determine regional and national trends in groundwater levels and groundwater quality, and facilitate the evaluation of transboundary groundwater resources.
Cooperative agreements will provide support for both new and existing data providers in the NGWMN. The USGS will fund new data providers to select and classify sites within existing monitoring programs, to set up web services that will link the data to the NGWMN portal, and to produce a report describing this process. Existing data providers will receive funds to maintain web services and keep site information current. Existing data providers may also receive funding to collect data to improve site information, to maintain wells, and to drill new or replacement network wells. The maximum allowable funds for any data provider agency is $150,000 per year for up to two years.
Any eligible agency may apply under this second round of the Program Announcement. The Program Announcement for the second round of funding is essentially unchanged from that issued last September. The Program Announcement will be open on Grants.gov from Friday April 12th through May 31st, 2019.
- Existing data providers who do not have a Persistent Data services project (Objective 2) active or that will expire soon, could use this opportunity to submit a proposal for funding for the next few years.
- Existing data providers may also propose work under any of the other 4 objectives, as well.
- Agencies who wish to become a new data provider to the NGWMN may apply for funding for work under Objectives 1, 2, or 3 during this opportunity.
- Agencies who are working with the USGS on a Cooperative Matching Funds data collected project at NGWMN sites may apply for funding for work under Objectives 3, 4, or 5.
- Agencies who applied during the first round of funding may submit an application under this Round 2 opportunity. This can include work that was not proposed during the Round 1 proposal or it can include a revised proposal for work that was not funded during the first round of proposals.
- Agencies who did not apply during the first round of funding are eligible to apply through this Round 2 Program Announcement.
- The total funding per year from both Round 1 and Round 2 funding cannot exceed $150,000 per year or $300,000 for the two-year project duration. Any funding from active NGWMN projects also need to be included in the annual limit.
More Information about the cooperative agreements is available on the NGWMN cooperative agreements page. Applications will be accepted from April 12, 2019 through May 31, 2019. Interested agencies may apply online at grants.gov under funding opportunity number G19AS00051. Applicants are encouraged to contact Daryll Pope (dpope@usgs.gov or (609)-771-3933) with any questions.
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