Funding Opportunities

Tribes and Native communities are on the front lines of climate change, experiencing extreme weather, rising sea levels, extended drought, warming temperatures, and melting permafrost. The IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report demonstrates that climate change affects Indigenous peoples more severely and earlier than other populations. Many tribes and Native communities are located in remote and coastal locations, which increases their vulnerabilities to flooding and wildfire. Furthermore, subsistence and cultural practices rely on healthy ecosystems that are stewarded by Native peoples. To support climate action that addresses adaptation and disaster preparation First Nations established the second project under its newly created Climate Initiative, Advancing Tribal Nature-Based Solutions. This project is designed to provide tribes and Native nonprofits with resources to support climate action that addresses adaptation and disaster preparation (e.g., wildfires, flooding, drought) through the application of nature-based solutions based on Native knowledge.

Nature-based solutions rely on animals, plants, and the environment to protect ecosystems and support human well-being and local biodiversity. Examples include:

Clam bed restoration to address flooding and beach erosion
Reintroduction of ecocultural plants to prevent erosion
Beaver restoration to promote water retention and carbon sequestration
Cultural burning to prevent sustain biodiversity
Grass farming to address desertification
First Nations is now accepting applications under our Stewarding Native Lands program for projects that aim to grow tribal capacity and programming to employ and monitor community-, culture-, and nature-based approaches. First Nations expects to award 6 grants up to $200,000 each to eligible tribes and organizations.

Grant support is made possible through funding from the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies and First Nations’ Tribal Lands Conservation Fund.

The Cultural and Community Resilience program supports community-based efforts to address the impacts of climate change and COVID-19 by safeguarding cultural resources and fostering cultural resilience through identifying, documenting, and/or collecting cultural heritage and community experiences. The program prioritizes projects from disadvantaged communities in the United States or its jurisdictions.

Projects should fall into one of two categories: community collecting initiatives or oral history programs. All projects must address the impacts of either climate change or the COVID-19 pandemic on one or more communities. The program welcomes both modest projects and larger ones and supports projects at any stage, from preliminary planning to final steps and implementation.

Project activities may take many forms, including but not limited to:

Collaborative planning to identify cultural and historical resources;
Documentation of cultural and historical resources through digital means;
Recording oral histories;
Preserving Traditional Knowledge, practices, or technologies, and memories of elders and community, including in languages other than English; or
Establishing shared resources and protocols for rapid response collecting.
NEH welcomes applications at all stages of project development and encourages the use of inclusive methodologies. These might include folkloric, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic modes of inquiry; oral histories; participatory archiving; shared stewardship arrangements; and community-centered access. NEH also encourages leveraging open access online resources and using Creative Commons licenses, when possible and as appropriate.

Please note: the proposal should budget funds for two members of the project team to attend a two-day meeting in Washington, D.C., in May 2026. See Research and Related Budget, section D in the Notice of Funding Opportunity, for more information.

A new pre-recorded webinar with updated information discussing the Cultural and Community Resilience program will be posted to this page by March 21, 2024.

The Administration for Children and Families, Administration for Native Americans announces the availability of Fiscal Year 2024 funds for community-based projects for the Environmental Regulatory Enhancement (ERE) program. The ERE program provides funding for the costs of planning, developing, and implementing programs designed to improve the capability of tribal governing bodies to regulate environmental quality pursuant to federal and tribal environmental laws.

This is a competitive grant solicitation. The CEC announces the availability of up to $4,070,070 to provide grants to local governments.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a two-year competitive funding opportunity for awards to eligible entities to provide technical assistance (TA) to businesses to encourage the development and implementation of source reduction practices also known as pollution prevention or “P2”. EPA is requiring recipients to develop at least one P2 case study and one P2 success story during the grant period. A P2 case study should provide detailed technical information on one or two specific source reduction/P2 practices implemented by a business, and the benefits achieved, so that other P2 TA providers or interested businesses have enough technical information that they can learn from and replicate those P2 practices. A P2 case study should focus on P2 approaches that are new and not widely known or adopted and/or where the recipient believes detailed information on the project could support more widespread project replication. This funding opportunity is announced under the authority of the Pollution Prevention Act and is funded by Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)—in collaboration with its Partnership Intermediary, ENERGYWERX —has opened applications to establish new industrial training and assessment centers, as part of the Industrial Assessment Centers (IAC) network, across the United States to train students and incumbent workers for high-quality careers in clean energy, energy efficiency, and advanced manufacturing, and to help small and midsized manufacturers (SMMs) save money, reduce energy waste, and improve productivity.

Through this solicitation, DOE aims to support community and technical colleges; trade schools; union training programs (including labor-management training programs); apprenticeship readiness, apprenticeship, and internship programs; and their employer and workforce system partners through planning awards of up to $200,000, execution awards of up to $2,000,000, and cohort awards of up to $7,000,000. This solicitation builds on the round of selections announced in November 2023 – applicants may wish to review those selections to understand the types of projects that DOE expects to fund in this solicitation.

This solicitation makes available up to $24,000,000 of funds from section 40521 of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), 42 USC § 17116.

TRACK THREE
Larger awards for an umbrella organization to establish and support 5-15 new IACs within their member network. At least 80% of funds must go to eligible sub-recipients.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)—in collaboration with its Partnership Intermediary, ENERGYWERX —has opened applications to establish new industrial training and assessment centers, as part of the Industrial Assessment Centers (IAC) network, across the United States to train students and incumbent workers for high-quality careers in clean energy, energy efficiency, and advanced manufacturing, and to help small and midsized manufacturers (SMMs) save money, reduce energy waste, and improve productivity.

Through this solicitation, DOE aims to support community and technical colleges; trade schools; union training programs (including labor-management training programs); apprenticeship readiness, apprenticeship, and internship programs; and their employer and workforce system partners through planning awards of up to $200,000, execution awards of up to $2,000,000, and cohort awards of up to $7,000,000. This solicitation builds on the round of selections announced in November 2023 – applicants may wish to review those selections to understand the types of projects that DOE expects to fund in this solicitation.

This solicitation makes available up to $24,000,000 of funds from section 40521 of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), 42 USC § 17116.

TRACK TWO
IAC Execution and Scale ($500,000-2,000,000 each, 36 months): Larger awards for an existing career training program to become an IAC. Selected projects will serve SMMs with no-cost technical assistance while expanding their workforce development supports and hands-on career training.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)—in collaboration with its Partnership Intermediary, ENERGYWERX —has opened applications to establish new industrial training and assessment centers, as part of the Industrial Assessment Centers (IAC) network, across the United States to train students and incumbent workers for high-quality careers in clean energy, energy efficiency, and advanced manufacturing, and to help small and midsized manufacturers (SMMs) save money, reduce energy waste, and improve productivity.

Through this solicitation, DOE aims to support community and technical colleges; trade schools; union training programs (including labor-management training programs); apprenticeship readiness, apprenticeship, and internship programs; and their employer and workforce system partners through planning awards of up to $200,000, execution awards of up to $2,000,000, and cohort awards of up to $7,000,000. This solicitation builds on the round of selections announced in November 2023 – applicants may wish to review those selections to understand the types of projects that DOE expects to fund in this solicitation.

This solicitation makes available up to $24,000,000 of funds from section 40521 of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), 42 USC § 17116.

TRACK ONE
IAC Planning and Capacity-Building ($100,000-200,000 each, 12 months): Smaller planning awards for workforce development programs looking to expand their industrial sector training, test options to serve SMMs through hands-on training, and prepare for a possible Track 2 (Execution and Scale) award in 1-2 years.

The Effectiveness Monitoring Committee (EMC) is seeking project proposals that:

(1) Address one or more of the EMC’s Research Themes and Critical Monitoring Questions and;

(2) Address natural resource protection issues that are important for California forestlands.

The critical monitoring questions are organized under 12 Research Themes. Four prioritized critical questions were determined by vote amongst the current EMC members at the beginning of each calendar year:

Are the FPRs and associated regulations effective in...

Question 1h: managing WLPZs to reduce or minimize potential fire behavior and rate of spread? Question 6c: managing fuel loads, vegetation patterns and fuel breaks for fire hazard reduction? Question 6d: managing forest structure and stocking standards to promote wildfire resilience? Question 12a: improving overall forest wildfire resilience and the ability of forests to respond to climate change (e.g., in response to drought or bark beetle; reducing plant water stress) and variability, and extreme weather events (evaluate ecosystem functional response to fuel reduction and forest health treatments)?

I. FUNDING AVAILABILITY. Funding available for newly proposed projects is anticipated as follows: $973,392 over three FYs beginning in 2024/25, comprising: $173,232 in FY 2024/25; $375,160 in FY 2025/26; and $425,000 in FY 2025/26.

II. AWARD LIMITATIONS. Applicants requesting more than the stated annual amount available for funding will not be considered. In the case that EMC funding for the full three years is awarded to one new project, project solicitation may not occur in the subsequent two FYs. While the EMC may choose to fund projects that span multiple FYs up to the annual funding cap, the EMC generally prefers to fund multiple research projects annually. Proposers should keep this in mind when developing their project and annual budget requests. Longer-term projects (greater than three years) may re-apply for funding for additional years through the competitive grants process advertised in the EMC’s Request for Proposals. Annual allocations are dependent upon demonstrated progress towards project completion pursuant to the project schedule and workplan.

a. ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES. Eligible projects will test one or more specific FPRs or other rule or regulation under the Board’s jurisdiction and which addresses one or more of the EMC’s Research Themes and Critical Monitoring Questions. Proposed projects must clearly apply to management activities on private timberlands in California. Projects on public land may be eligible for EMC funding provided they clearly apply to the activities and systems that also exist on non-federal timberland.

b. ELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS. Eligible applicants are local, state, and federal agencies including federal land management agencies; institutions of higher education; special purpose districts (e.g., public utilities districts, fire districts, conservation districts, and ports); Native American tribes; private landowners; for-profit entities; and non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations.

The purpose of this solicitation is to develop and demonstrate the impact of a DC-powered HVAC heat pump in a self-contained module that includes solar PV and energy storage, also known as a DC HVAC nanogrid module, in residential and commercial settings.