Deadline: 5-Feb-24
The Department of Commerce is inviting applications for the Climate Adaptation Partnerships Program, an applied research and engagement program, that expands society’s regional capacity to adapt to climate impacts in the United States.
The CAP program supports sustained, collaborative relationships that help communities build lasting and equitable climate resilience. Funded by 5-year cooperative agreements with NOAA, the work is accomplished by teams of research institutions, nonprofit organizations, and state/local/Tribal governments in multi-state regions. CAP teams engage in a variety of applied and co-developed research and partnerships with communities. A central tenet of the CAP program is that learning about climate adaptation and resilience is facilitated by and sustained across a wide range of experts, practitioners, and the public. Learning about and doing adaptation happens within social contexts. As such, the CAP program supports networks of people working together to plan for and adjust to change using science and local knowledge.
Program Objective
- The Climate Adaptation Partnerships (CAP) program resides in the Climate Program Office’s (CPO) Climate and Societal Interactions (CSI) division. The CSI division has traditionally been a home for high-impact science, catalyzing some of the earliest U.S. government investments in regionally-scaled, societally-relevant, interdisciplinary climate research and engagement focused on reducing vulnerability and risk through the use of climate knowledge and information.
- CAP prioritizes collaborative approaches that incorporate multiple knowledge sources and integrate social, physical, and natural science, resulting in long-term support of and increased capacity for communities. In addition, CAP supports cutting-edge social science on the impacts of climate change on communities, challenges and opportunities for adaptation, and inclusive methods of engagement. As the adaptation community in the United States advances and evolves, CAP seeks to support new creative, solution-oriented approaches that are both responsive to communities and that integrate across silos of scientific knowledge and expertise. Central to achieving the CAP mission are:
- Regional Relevance, Local Expertise
- Integrated Scientific Approaches
- Knowledge-to-Action Partnerships
- A National Network of Resilience Researchers and Adaptation Science Specialists
Funding Information
- Proposals can request up to $1,100,000/year for core CAP work, for a total of $5,500,000. A minimum of $200,000 within the total budget must be set aside to directly fund community-based organizations or local governments serving under-resourced frontline communities. It is anticipated that a maximum of one CAP team will be funded per region, depending on funding availability. CPO anticipates that funding decisions on applications will be made during spring 2024. Such decisions are contingent upon the final FY24 appropriation for NOAA by Congress and the final allocation of funds to CPO by NOAA.
- Project/Award Period: CAP Teams are expected to last for 5 years.
Program Priorities
- Through this NOFO, CAP is soliciting applications to support up to one full CAP team to conduct research and engagement in each of the following regions:
- Upper Northeast- Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, western Massachusetts, and upstate New York
- Southeast- Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida
- Proposals should incorporate the principles of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) into their applications. To do so, applicants should consider the following factors when developing their projects:
- The vulnerabilities and disproportionate impacts of climate change on frontline communities including economically disadvantaged communities, historically marginalized communities, indigenous and tribal communities, and rural communities.
- Communities, towns, or neighborhoods under-resourced and underserved by technical, financial, and/or human resources (e.g. communities too small to qualify for FEMA grants) to address climate risks and vulnerabilities.
- The role of researchers and practitioners in carrying out work in ways that acknowledge existing legacies of social and environmental inequities and supporting actions that address them, including but not limited to the inclusion and compensation of frontline community members in setting project priorities.
- Regional diversity expressed in the team structure, roles and responsibilities, team decision making approaches, institutional roles, and broader networks and partnerships.
- Team contributions to a diverse, next-generation climate adaptation workforce through training, mentorship, education, and other means and by engaging with students and early career professionals.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible applicants are institutions of higher education, other nonprofits, commercial organizations, international organizations, and state, local and Indian tribal governments. Federal agencies or institutions are not eligible to receive Federal assistance under this notice.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.