Deadline: 15-Feb-24
The Department of Commerce is offering grants to address current and future drought and climate risk on tribal lands across the West by improving decision support and building drought resilience in a changing climate as authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act.
This Notice of Funding Opportunity will support the implementation of activities that address current and future drought risk on tribal lands across the West in the context of a changing climate. These activities could include, but are not limited to: conducting drought vulnerability assessments, developing drought plans and communication plans, identifying primary drought impacts, optimal drought indicators and/or triggers and improving drought monitoring; developing drought dashboards with relevant drought tools and information and demonstrating the application of drought data and information to enhance decision-making.
Program Objectives
- Climate variability and change present society with significant economic, health, safety, and security challenges. As part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) climate portfolio within the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), the Climate Program Office (CPO) addresses these climate challenges by supporting climate research, observations, monitoring, modeling, assessments, interdisciplinary decision support research, outreach, education, and partnership development. These investments support NOAA’s mission of “Science, Service, and Stewardship” and are designed to advance the understanding of the Earth’s climate system and to foster the application and use of this knowledge to improve the resilience of the Nation and its partners. The position of CPO at the intersection among NOAA’s science and service missions, the climate research community, and the broader climate enterprise enables it to provide strategic vision, lead a research agenda and forge partnerships that enhance society’s ability to make effective decisions. CPO also fulfills NOAA’s authorized responsibilities under the National Climate Program Act, the Global Change Research Act and its National Climate Assessment, the National Integrated Drought Information System Act, and similar international endeavors such as the World Climate Research Program.
- CPO’s programs manage a competitive process through a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) announcement to make awards supporting high-quality research and technical assistance conducted across the United States and internationally on the most urgent climate science questions. While each program area has its own focus, together they advance understanding of Earth’s climate system through interdisciplinary, integrated scientific research, and leverage the resulting knowledge, data, and systems to enhance society’s ability to plan and respond to climate variability and climate change. Toward this end, CPO’s Integrated Information Systems work collaboratively with decision makers to build societal understanding of climate risks, develop science-based solutions, and improve capacity, communication, and decision-making to reduce impacts to human health, critical infrastructure, security, and the economy.
Funding Information
- Pending the availability of funds in FY2024, NIDIS anticipates a funding allocation of approximately $2 million.
- Proposals may request funding of up to $700,000 total to be disseminated in year 1 and expended over three years in the form of Cooperative Agreements. A total of 3-5 projects may be funded depending on project budget requested.
- Funding for the NIDIS Coping with Drought: Building Tribal Drought Resilience with Support from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is expected to last for 3 years.
Program Priorities
For the purposes of this competition, the “West” is considered to be the areas within the following five NIDIS Drought Early Warning System (DEWS) regions: California-Nevada, Intermountain West, Missouri River Basin, Pacific Northwest, and Southern Plains.
Projects could include, but are not limited to the following types of activities:
- Identifying primary drought impacts
- Identifying optimal drought indicators and/or triggers
- Developing a drought communication/information dissemination plan
- Improving/enhancing drought monitoring
- Developing an online dashboard with relevant drought tools and information
- Conducting a drought vulnerability assessment
- Developing a drought plan
- Convening workshops with key partners, within the tribe and/or external to the tribe, to increase communication and sharing of drought information
- Demonstrating the application of drought data and information to enhance decision making
Program Outcomes
- The outcomes of the projects funded will not only provide an opportunity for building community resilience, but also the integration of traditional ecological knowledge and western knowledge systems which is key to understanding and adapting to drought in a changing climate.
- Proposals will:
- Demonstrate full partnership of tribal nations. If the primary applicant is not a tribal nation, full partnership with a tribal nation can be demonstrated by:
- including at least one full investigator on the project representing a federally recognized tribe and
- indicating through the budget and budget justification that funds are being disseminated to the tribe.
- Demonstrate an integrated project team that also considers partners from the public and private sectors; academia, including Tribal Colleges and Universities; local, regional, tribal, and federal governmental entities; non-governmental organizations (NGOs); environmental groups; intertribal councils and consortia, tribal allottee organizations, citizen groups, etc.
- Demonstrate adherence to the Guiding Principles of Tribal Engagement as defined in the NIDIS Tribal Drought Engagement Strategy: 2021-2025 which include:
- respecting tribal sovereignty,
- ensuring trust and reciprocity, and
- ensuring drought related work is culturally appropriate and useful for tribal nations.
- As part of the description of project activities, provide detailed information on the activities to be conducted, locations, sites, timeline (seasons), species and habitat to be affected, possible construction activities, and any environmental concerns that may exist, as NOAA must analyze the potential environmental impacts, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
- Demonstrate full partnership of tribal nations. If the primary applicant is not a tribal nation, full partnership with a tribal nation can be demonstrated by:
- Proposals may:
- Demonstrate external contributions (e.g., in-kind contributions and/or funding) to be leveraged with these federal research funds, though there are no match or cost-share requirements.
- Leverage previous or ongoing work related to drought risk assessment and the implementation of actions to build drought resilience such as those funded under the BIA Branch of Tribal Climate Resilience, the Department of the Interior Climate Adaptation Science Centers, etc.
- Demonstrate a partnership with a Tribal College or University (TCU) to enhance collaboration and utilize the valuable resources that TCUs have to offer in terms of their faculty/staff, students, and facilities.
- Project teams will be encouraged to work with the NIDIS Tribal Engagement Coordinator to share outcomes and lessons learned with other tribal nations and tribal organizations, where appropriate, to strengthen national tribal drought preparedness and response.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible applicants are federally recognized tribal governments, institutions of higher education, other nonprofits, commercial organizations, international organizations, and state and local governments. If the primary applicant is not a tribal government, full partnership with a tribal nation can be demonstrated by:
- including at least one full investigator on the project representing a federally recognized tribe
- indicating through the budget and budget justification that funds are being disseminated to the tribe.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
