Funding Opportunities
The overarching goal of the WCAHS Pilot/Feasibility Program is to encourage the development of creative research projects while nurturing researchers—particularly early-career and under-represented researchers—interested in improving agricultural health and safety for the western U.S. It is designed to fund short-term research projects to support the collection of preliminary data, attract new investigators to WCAHS and the field of agricultural health and safety, facilitate the exploration of innovative research directions, and engage and mentor early stage investigators as defined by the NIH.
Nonpoint source pollution is the primary cause of water quality impairments throughout Nevada and the nation. Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution, unlike pollution from industrial and sewage treatment plants, comes from many diffuse sources (See NAC 445A.309). NPS pollution is caused by rainfall or snowmelt moving over and through the ground. As the runoff moves, it picks up and carries away natural and human-made pollutants, finally depositing them into lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands, and ground water.
The overall aim of the federal Nonpoint Source Program administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) is to restore and protect waters across the nation. The focus of the federal NPS Program is the removal of waters from the state’s 303(d) impaired waterbodies list. This is primary accomplished through the issuance of Clean Water Act 319(h) funds to designated states and tribal agencies to implement their approved nonpoint source management plans. Within Nevada, most of this grant funding is passed on to proponents seeking to implement actions to improve water quality.
USEPA guidance prioritizes 319(h) funding be utilized on implementation efforts within watersheds with approved watershed-based plans (WBPs). To gain approval, WBPs should, at a minimum, include the following nine elements:
1. Pollutant sources or causes
2. Management measures to be implemented to address pollutant sources/causes
3. Load reduction estimates for management measures to be implemented
4. Estimate of technical and financial assistance needed
5. Stakeholder information and engagement component
6. Implementation schedule
7. Measurable implementation milestones
8. Indicators to measure progress
9. Monitoring component to evaluate progress.
The Fisheries Restoration and Irrigation Mitigation Act (FRIMA) (Public Law 106-502) of 2000 was established with the goals of decreasing fish mortality associated with the withdrawal of water for irrigation and other purposes without impairing the continued withdrawal of water for those purposes; and to decrease the incidence of juvenile and adult fish entering water supply systems. FRIMA is a voluntary fish screening and passage program targeted to Pacific Ocean drainage areas of Idaho, western Montana, Oregon, and Washington.
Eligible projects include fish screens, fish passage devices, and related inventories by the States. FRIMA was Reauthorized in FY2009. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 provided $5 million to the National Fish Passage Program (NFPP) for the implementation of FRIMA and added the Pacific Ocean drainage areas of California as eligible for FRIMA funds.The National Fish Passage Program (NFPP) is a voluntary program that provides direct technical and financial assistance to partners to remove instream barriers and restore aquatic organism passage and aquatic connectivity for the benefit of Federal trust resources. In doing so, NFPP aims to maintain or increase fish populations to improve ecosystem resiliency and provide quality fishing experiences for the American people. Funds provided to NFPP for the implementation of FRIMA will support the development, improvement, or installation of fish screens, fish passage devices and related features to mitigate impacts on fisheries associated with irrigation water system diversions in Pacific Ocean drainages in Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, and California.
The NFPP is delivered through the Fish and Aquatic Conservation Program (FAC). We use our staff and cooperative partnerships to provide:
(1) information on habitat needs of fish and other aquatic species;
(2) methods for fish to bypass barriers;
(3) technical support to review project designs and recommend the most cost-effective techniques;
(4) assistance to partners in planning and prioritizing fish passage projects; and
(5) assistance in fulfilling environmental compliance requirements.
Activities proposed under this award for FRIMA:
(1) must be located in areas of California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, or western Montana that drain into the Pacific Ocean,
(2) participation must be voluntary,
(3) must have 35% Non-Federal cost share per Public Law 106-502. Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) funding can be applied to the Non-Federal cost share,
(4) project type must be voluntary irrigation diversion passage, screening, barrier inventories, and ‘related features’,
(5) project components that receive funding under this Act shall be ineligible to receive federal funds from any other source (with the exception of BPA funds) for the same purpose,
(6) the project will be agreeable to Federal and non-Federal entities with authority and responsibility for the project,
(7) award minimum will be $100,000; award maximum will be $1,000,000, and
(8) the non-Federal participants in any project carried out under the Program on land or at a facility that is not owned by the United States shall be responsible for all costs associated with operating, maintaining, repairing, rehabilitating, and replacing the project.
The purpose of this notice is to solicit applications for Stage Two Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) grants. Funds for the fiscal year (FY) 2024 SMART Grants Program are to be awarded on a competitive basis to prior 2022 Stage One recipients in order to implement the plans and prototypes previously developed in Stage One that will advance smart city or community technologies and systems to improve transportation efficiency and safety.
Only recipients of SMART Stage One Planning and Prototyping Grants, or eligible entities designated by Stage One SMART recipients, awarded under the FY22 SMART Stage One NOFO, may apply for this Stage Two Implementation Grants.
For this Notice of Funding Opportunity, the Draft Implementation Report completed by each Stage One Recipient will be assessed. Any applicant that is not required to submit a Draft Implementation Report between July-September 2024, as their period of performance began after October 1, 2023, will not be eligible to respond to this Notice of Funding Opportunity. US DOT anticipates multiple additional Stage Two NOFOs will be released in 2025 and 2026 which other SMART Stage One recipient will be eligible to apply for.
The USDA SBIR/STTR programs focus on transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial potential and/or societal benefit. Unlike fundamental research, the USDA SBIR/STTR programs support small businesses in the creation of innovative, disruptive technologies and enable the application of research advancements from conception into the market. The STTR program aims to foster technology transfer through formal cooperative R&D between small businesses and nonprofit research institutions.
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announces the opportunity to apply for a total of $1,936,000 in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Public Transportation Innovation funds in competitive cooperative agreement awards for projects that enhance mobility innovations for transit. Funds will be awarded for projects that advance emerging technologies, strategies, and innovations in traveler-centered mobility in two distinct areas. Of the total available funds, $968,000 is available for projects to accelerate innovations that improve mobility and enhance the rider experience with a focus on innovative service delivery models, creative financing, novel partnerships, and integrated payment solutions. Another $968,000 is available for projects to develop software solutions that facilitate the provision of integrated demand-response public transportation service that dispatches public transportation fleet vehicles through riders’ mobile devices or other means.
The NSF SBIR/STTR program encourages startups and small businesses to submit proposals across nearly all areas of science and engineering. *
While startups and small businesses face many challenges, the NSF SBIR/STTR funding is intended to specifically focus on challenges associated with technological innovation; that is, on the creation of new products, services, and other scalable solutions based on fundamental science or engineering. A successful Phase I proposal demonstrates how NSF funding will help the small business create a proof-of-concept or prototype by retiring technical risk. Funding from NSF may only be used to conduct research and development (R&D) to demonstrate technical feasibility.
NSF seeks SBIR/STTR proposals that represent success in three distinct, but related merit review criteria: Intellectual Merit, Broader Impacts, and Commercialization Potential.
The Intellectual Merit criterion encompasses the potential to advance knowledge and leverages fundamental science or engineering research techniques to overcoming technical risk. This can be conveyed through the Research and Development (R&D) of the project. R&D is broadly defined in 2 CFR § 200.1, but specified for the NSF SBIR/STTR program as follows:
the application of creative, original, and potentially transformative concepts to systematically study, create, adapt, or manipulate the structure and behavior of the natural or man-made worlds;
the use of the scientific method to propose well-reasoned, well-organized activities based on sound theory, computation, measurement, observation, experiment, or modeling;
the demonstration of a well-qualified individual, team, or organization ready to deploy novel methods of creating, acquiring, processing, manipulating, storing, or disseminating data or metadata; and/or
the novel integration of new theories, analysis, data, or methods regarding cognition, heuristics, and related phenomena.
NSF SBIR/STTR proposals are evaluated via the concepts of Technical Risk and Technological Innovation. Technical Risk assumes that the possibility of technical failure exists for an envisioned product, service, or solution to be successfully developed. This risk is present even to those suitably skilled in the art of the component, subsystem, method, technique, tool, or algorithm in question. Technological Innovation indicates that the new product or service is differentiated from current products or services; that is, the new technology holds the potential to result in a product or service with a substantial and durable advantage over competing solutions on the market. It also generally provides a barrier to entry for competitors. This means that if the new product, service, or solution is successfully realized and brought to the market, it should be difficult for a well-qualified, competing firm to reverse-engineer or otherwise neutralize the competitive advantage generated by leveraging fundamental science or engineering research techniques.
The Broader Impacts criterion encompasses the potential benefit to society and contribution to the achievement of specific, desired societal outcomes as outlined in the NSF PAPPG Merit Review Broader Impacts Criteria.
The NSF SBIR/STTR program funds the development of new, high-risk technology innovations intended to generate positive societal and economic outcomes. Proposers should also consider the Broader Impacts Review Criterion at 42 U.S.C. §1862p-14:
Increasing the economic competitiveness of the United States.
Advancing of the health and welfare of the American public.
Supporting the national defense of the United States.
Enhancing partnerships between academia and industry in the United States.
Developing an American STEM workforce that is globally competitive through improved pre-kindergarten through grade 12 STEM education and teacher development and improved undergraduate STEM education and instruction.
Improving public scientific literacy and engagement with science and technology in the United States.
Expanding participation of groups underrepresented in STEM.
The Commercialization Potential of the proposed product or service is the potential for the resulting technology to disrupt the targeted market segment by way of a strong and durable value proposition for the customers or users.
The proposed product or service addresses an unmet, important, and scalable need for the target customer base.
The proposed small business is structured and staffed to focus on aggressive commercialization of the product/service.
The proposed small business can provide evidence of good product-market fit (as validated by direct and significant interaction with customers and related stakeholders).
More details and information regarding the NSF SBIR/STTR merit review criteria can be found in Section VI of this solicitation.
* The NSF SBIR/STTR program does not support clinical trials or proposals from companies whose commercialization pathway involves the production, distribution, or sale by the company of chemical components, natural or synthetic variations thereof, or other derivatives related to Schedule I controlled substances.
The NSF SBIR/STTR programs support moving scientific excellence and technological innovation from the lab to the market. By funding startups and small businesses, NSF helps build a strong national economy and stimulates the creation of novel products, services, and solutions in private, public, or government sectors with potential for broad impact; strengthens the role of small business in meeting federal research and development needs; increases the commercial application of federally supported research results; and develops and expands the US workforce, especially by fostering and encouraging participation by socially and economically disadvantaged and women-owned small businesses.
The NSF SBIR/STTR Phase II programs provide non-dilutive funding for the development of a broad range of technologies based on discoveries in science and engineering with potential for societal and economic impacts. Unlike fundamental or basic research activities that focus on scientific and engineering discovery itself, the NSF SBIR/STTR programs support the creation of opportunities to move use-inspired and translational discoveries out of the lab and into the market or other use at scale, through startups and small businesses. The NSF SBIR/STTR programs do not solicit specific technologies or procure goods and services. The funding provided is non-dilutive. Any invention conceived or reduced to practice with the assistance of SBIR/STTR funding is subject to the Bayh/Dole Act. For more information, refer to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), #75.
NSF encourages input and participation from the full spectrum of diverse talent that society has to offer which includes underrepresented and underserved communities.
NSF seeks unproven, leading-edge, technology innovations that demonstrate the following characteristics:
The innovations are underpinned and enabled by a new scientific discovery or meaningful engineering innovation.
The innovations still require intensive technical research and development to be fully embedded in a reliable product or service.
The innovations have not yet been reduced to practice by anyone and it is not guaranteed, at present, that doing so is technically possible.
The innovations provide a strong competitive advantage that are not easily replicable by competitors (even technically proficient ones).
Once reduced to practice, the innovations are expected to result in a product or service that would either be disruptive to existing markets or create new markets/new market segments.
The NSF SBIR/STTR programs focus on stimulating technical innovation from diverse entrepreneurs and start-ups and small businesses by translating new scientific and engineering concepts into products and services that can be scaled and commercialized into sustainable businesses with significant societal benefits. The program provides non-dilutive funding for research and development (R&D) of use-inspired scientific and engineering activities for startups and small businesses. In Phase I, the emphasis is on de-risking those aspects preventing the innovation from reaching technical feasibility and driving the intended impact. In Phase II, R&D continues, but the emphasis starts to shift away from research and to development challenges which, if solved, would result in new sustainable competitive advantages to allow the company to differentiate itself and drive new value propositions to the market and society.
This NSF program is governed by 15 USC 638 and the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended (42 USC §1861, et seq.).
Communities in the United States (US) and around the world are entering a new era of transformation in which residents and their surrounding environments are increasingly connected through rapidly-changing intelligent technologies. This transformation offers great promise for improved wellbeing and prosperity but poses significant challenges at the complex intersection of technology and society. The goal of the NSF Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC) program solicitation is to accelerate the creation of the scientific and engineering foundations that will enable smart and connected communities to bring about new levels of economic opportunity and growth, safety and security, health and wellness, accessibility and inclusivity, and overall quality of life.
For the purposes of this solicitation, communities are defined as having geographically-delineated boundaries — such as towns, cities, counties, neighborhoods, community districts, rural areas, and tribal regions — consisting of various populations, with the structure and ability to engage in meaningful ways with proposed research activities. A "smart and connected community" is, in turn, defined as a community that synergistically integrates intelligent technologies with the natural and built environments, including infrastructure, to improve the social, economic, and environmental well-being of those who live, work, learn, or travel within it. The S&CC program encourages researchers to work with community stakeholders to identify and define challenges they are facing, enabling those challenges to motivate use-inspired research questions. For this solicitation, community stakeholders may include some or all of the following: residents, neighborhood or community groups, nonprofit or philanthropic organizations, businesses, as well as municipal organizations such as libraries, museums, educational institutions, public works departments, and health and social services agencies. The S&CC program supports integrative research that addresses fundamental technological and social science dimensions of smart and connected communities and pilots solutions together with communities. Importantly, this program is interested in projects that consider the sustainability of the research outcomes beyond the life of the project, including the scalability and transferability of the proposed solutions.
This S&CC solicitation will support research projects in the following categories:
S&CC Integrative Research Grants (SCC-IRG) Tracks 1 and 2. Awards in this category will support fundamental integrative research that addresses technological and social science dimensions of smart and connected communities and pilots solutions together with communities. Track 1 proposals may request budgets ranging between $1,500,001 and $2,500,000, with durations of up to four years. Track 2 proposals may request budgets up to $1,500,000, with durations of up to three years.
S&CC Planning Grants (SCC-PG). Awards in this category are for capacity building to prepare project teams to propose future well-developed SCC-IRG proposals. Each of these awards will provide support for a period of one year and may be requested at a level not to exceed $150,000 for the total budget. S&CC is a cross-directorate program supported by NSF's Directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Education and Human Resources (EHR), Engineering (ENG), and Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE).
Communities in the United States (US) and around the world are entering a new era of transformation in which residents and their surrounding environments are increasingly connected through rapidly-changing intelligent technologies. This transformation offers great promise for improved wellbeing and prosperity but poses significant challenges at the complex intersection of technology and society. The goal of the NSF Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC) program solicitation is to accelerate the creation of the scientific and engineering foundations that will enable smart and connected communities to bring about new levels of economic opportunity and growth, safety and security, health and wellness, accessibility and inclusivity, and overall quality of life.
For the purposes of this solicitation, communities are defined as having geographically-delineated boundaries — such as towns, cities, counties, neighborhoods, community districts, rural areas, and tribal regions — consisting of various populations, with the structure and ability to engage in meaningful ways with proposed research activities. A "smart and connected community" is, in turn, defined as a community that synergistically integrates intelligent technologies with the natural and built environments, including infrastructure, to improve the social, economic, and environmental well-being of those who live, work, learn, or travel within it. The S&CC program encourages researchers to work with community stakeholders to identify and define challenges they are facing, enabling those challenges to motivate use-inspired research questions. For this solicitation, community stakeholders may include some or all of the following: residents, neighborhood or community groups, nonprofit or philanthropic organizations, businesses, as well as municipal organizations such as libraries, museums, educational institutions, public works departments, and health and social services agencies. The S&CC program supports integrative research that addresses fundamental technological and social science dimensions of smart and connected communities and pilots solutions together with communities. Importantly, this program is interested in projects that consider the sustainability of the research outcomes beyond the life of the project, including the scalability and transferability of the proposed solutions.
This S&CC solicitation will support research projects in the following categories:
S&CC Integrative Research Grants (SCC-IRG) Tracks 1 and 2. Awards in this category will support fundamental integrative research that addresses technological and social science dimensions of smart and connected communities and pilots solutions together with communities. Track 1 proposals may request budgets ranging between $1,500,001 and $2,500,000, with durations of up to four years. Track 2 proposals may request budgets up to $1,500,000, with durations of up to three years.
S&CC Planning Grants (SCC-PG). Awards in this category are for capacity building to prepare project teams to propose future well-developed SCC-IRG proposals. Each of these awards will provide support for a period of one year and may be requested at a level not to exceed $150,000 for the total budget. S&CC is a cross-directorate program supported by NSF's Directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Education and Human Resources (EHR), Engineering (ENG), and Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE).