Cooperative Agreement for affiliated Partner with Great Basin Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit
USGS is funding a CESU partner to help fill aquatic species barcode library gaps for an eDNA/metabarcoding project supporting aquatic ecosystem monitoring in the Rocky Mountains.
⚑ Only participating partners of the Great Basin Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit are eligible. · Cooperative Agreement under the CESU program; award is for research/technical assistance rather than general university-wide competition. · Award ceiling is $250,000.
This is a USGS applied natural-science project on species barcoding, eDNA, and machine-learning prediction of aquatic community composition. It has no meaningful connection to IPPRA’s social-behavioral risk, policy, weather, energy, or education lines, so it is not something this team would plausibly pursue as PI.
JUDGED AGAINST THE ROSTER'S PUBLICATION DOSSIER · GPT-5.4-MINI · 2026-10-31
Unit fits — one characterization, each unit's own rules
| Physical Sciences & Engineering (demo) | 80 strong | technical depth: substantial; funds applied research |
| IPPRA | 45 partial | portfolio topics: water_resources, environment (primary); social/behavioral work is none; funds applied research; biomedical core — IPPRA health lane is communication/crisis/policy (capped); capped at 45 (limited social-science role) |
| Tom Love Innovation Hub | 30 weak | funds applied research; deep-tech content |
Description
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research in species barcoding. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is potentially a powerful new tool to monitor and assess the status of aquatic ecosystems and the societal values they support such as recreational fishing and species protection. Assessments based on metabarcoding can detect a wide array of species from microbes to fish, providing more comprehensive and cost-effect assessments than existing techniques. However, one pressing need in developing metabarcoding assessment tools is to enhance existing libraries of aquatic species barcodes.
The USGS Water Resources Mission Area is leading a pilot project in the Rocky Mountains to evaluate metagenomics as a means of monitoring and assessing aquatic species. Metagenomics data from field samples will be combined with large geospatial datasets to develop artificial intelligence and machine-learning models that predict community composition. The project is more likely to succeed if current gaps in species barcode libraries are filled.
Eligibility
This financial assistance opportunity is being issued under a Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU) Program. CESU's are partnerships that provide research, technical assistance, and education. Eligible recipients must be a participating partner of the Great Basin Ecosystem Studies Unit.
Apply
View on Grants.gov → CONTACT: Geological Survey <Rachel_miller@ios.doi.gov>
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