Prediction and Early Identification of Harmful Algal Bloom (HABs) in Riverine Systems | W81EWF 24 SOI 0039

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81EWF 24 SOI 0039

This funding opportunity supports applied research to improve how harmful algal blooms (HABs) are detected early and predicted in river systems, where blooms can stretch for hundreds of miles, persist for weeks, and create major public health, ecological, operational, and economic impacts. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), through the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), is looking to form an interdisciplinary collaboration with a non-federal research partner to build a cost-effective and scalable framework that can be transferred beyond a single river. The overarching problem the program is trying to solve is that HABs are becoming more frequent and long-lasting, and managers need practical tools that provide early warning of developing conditions and, when possible, credible forecasts of what could happen next so they can communicate risk and take timely response actions.

A central requirement is that the proposed work be explicitly designed for scalability and transferability. Applicants must name and justify a primary riverine system that will serve as the main case study, and also identify a secondary riverine system that helps test, contextualize, or stress-check the approach. The secondary system is meant to help answer whether insights from the primary river carry over and what system features (for example, hydrology, watershed land use, nutrient regimes, flow regulation, geomorphology, climate, or monitoring constraints) must be considered when applying the framework elsewhere. The opportunity strongly encourages meaningful engagement with tribal, federal, state, and local partners who have on-the-ground knowledge of HAB history, monitoring, management decisions, and public communication needs in the selected rivers. Proposals are expected to identify these stakeholders early and describe how they will be involved during planning, data collection, interpretation, and delivery of final products.

The technical work is organized around building and then demonstrating a systematic approach for early HAB detection and prediction in rivers. The opportunity distinguishes between early warning and prediction, and asks applicants to treat them as related but separate components. Early warning is framed as near-term detection of what is happening now or has just happened, using field sampling, in situ sensors, and/or remote sensing products that may be available in real time or within hours to days. Prediction refers to modeling and forecasting what could happen under upcoming conditions. The requested "systematic approach" should lay out practical monitoring methods, the spatial layout and logic of a monitoring network (where to measure and why), and a quantitative interpretation framework that can turn raw observations into timely, understandable outputs. It also needs to address uncertainty directly, including how uncertainty will be estimated and how results and limitations will be communicated to decision-makers and potentially the public.

After designing the approach, the project must demonstrate it at field scale. That demonstration is expected to include collection of new data while also making maximum use of existing federal and state HAB-related programs, activities, and datasets, which is explicitly encouraged as a way to improve cost-effectiveness and compatibility with ongoing efforts. During the demonstration, the team should pay attention to whether the results reveal patterns in space or time that suggest where prevention-oriented actions might reduce bloom intensity or extent. Prevention is not the main goal of the call, but if the early identification and prediction work highlights actionable leverage points (for example, specific tributaries, flow conditions, seasons, or hotspots linked to bloom initiation or persistence), those observations should be captured and clearly discussed.

Deliverables center on documentation, usability, and data access. The project must produce a draft and final study report that summarizes the field-scale demonstration outcomes and explains how the framework performed in the primary river system. If the case study points to opportunities where actions could reduce HAB severity or intensity, the report should include an applications section describing those possibilities. The final output should be a complete framework for prediction and early identification of riverine HABs that incorporates lessons learned from the final case study and includes guidance on transferability, specifically what changes or considerations are needed to apply the framework to the secondary river system and, by extension, other rivers. A key compliance requirement is that all water quality data collected through the project be uploaded to the Water Quality Portal (https://www.waterqualitydata.us/), and the opportunity calls for complementary data publication so end users can readily access and use what the project generates.

Administratively, this is a discretionary funding opportunity issued as a cooperative agreement, meaning the government anticipates substantial involvement and collaboration during the project rather than a hands-off grant. The opportunity number is W81EWF 24 SOI 0039 under CFDA 12.630, with an award ceiling of $500,000 and an expectation of one award. The posting date is July 18, 2024, with an original closing date of September 16, 2024. Eligibility is restricted to non-federal partners affiliated with the Southern Appalachian Mountains and the Piedmont-South Atlantic Coast Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Units (CESUs), so applicants must fit within that CESU structure to be considered. Proposals are expected to be well-structured and specific: they must clearly state the scientific and technical questions being answered (technical objectives), specify the tasks and data needed to answer them (data quality objectives), define deliverables by task and by year, and include quantitative and qualitative success criteria for each task.

• The Engineer Research and Development Center in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Prediction and Early Identification of Harmful Algal Bloom (HABs) in Riverine Systems" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.630.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-07-18.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-09-16. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for W81EWF 24 SOI 0039

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