Ecosystem Services Evaluation Decision Research and Development | W81EWF 24 SOI 0014

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81EWF 24 SOI 0014

The Ecosystem Services Evaluation Decision Research and Development opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number W81EWF 24 SOI 0014) is a discretionary, science-and-technology research effort led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). It will be awarded as a cooperative agreement, reflecting an expectation of active collaboration between USACE and the selected university partner rather than a hands-off grant. The program is designed to build an interdisciplinary partnership that blends environmental economics, ecology, and decision science to make ecosystem services valuation more practical and repeatable for real-world water resources planning and management.

At its core, the project aims to create a decision support framework that estimates the value of ecosystem services associated with existing and proposed water resource projects and related public lands. The intent is a tool that planners and managers can actually use: users would enter a limited set of relevant project criteria and parameters, and the framework would return estimated values for multiple ecosystem services. Importantly, the valuations are not assumed to be automatically beneficial; estimated changes can be positive or negative depending on how a proposed action affects ecosystem conditions and services. The opportunity specifically anticipates valuing services such as water quality improvements, recreation, harvest (for example fisheries or other extractive benefits), species protection, wetland protection, carbon sequestration, open space, and flood protection.

The scope of work is organized around several major technical outcomes. First, the team will review and select appropriate metrics that capture ecosystem services in ways that match the types of changes water resource projects cause and the management contexts of public lands tied to water resources. Second, the project will ground valuation estimates in the best available environmental economics literature, using comprehensive literature review and meta-analysis methods to improve the credibility and transferability of benefit estimates to specific projects (a focus on more accurate benefits transfer, including quantitative and semi-quantitative outputs). Third, the collaboration will develop and test the ecosystem services evaluation decision support framework itself, then deliver it through a web-based portal so it can be accessed and used more broadly by practitioners. Fifth, and more specialized, the project includes an in-depth valuation study focused on oyster reef restoration, using economic experiments and/or other accepted valuation methods to assess the ecosystem services generated by reefs. That oyster reef component is meant to produce defensible, case-based insights that can feed the broader framework and inform coastal restoration decisions.

From a proposal and project management standpoint, applicants are expected to be explicit and structured. Competitive submissions should clearly define the technical questions the project will answer (technical objectives), spell out the tasks and data needed to answer those questions (data quality objectives), and lay out deliverables by task and by year. The opportunity encourages proposers to leverage existing federal and external ecosystem services programs, datasets, and initiatives rather than reinventing data pipelines or valuation approaches. It also emphasizes accountability: proposals should identify qualitative and quantitative success criteria for each task and objective, and it is encouraged to include go/no-go decision points at the end of each project year so progress can be evaluated and the approach adjusted if needed.

Deliverables are expected to be public-facing and professionally disseminated, including technical reports, technical notes, peer-reviewed journal articles, presentations, and participation in In Progress Reviews as appropriate. In other words, the agency is looking for both an operational product (the web-delivered decision framework) and a documented, publishable technical foundation that shows how the metrics and valuations were derived and validated.

Eligibility is limited: only non-federal partners of the Chesapeake Watershed Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (CESU) may apply. The listing indicates an expected single award with a ceiling of $525,000 (CFDA 12.630). The opportunity originally closed on 2024-03-11, and it was posted/created on 2024-01-11. Overall, the grant is aimed at making ecosystem services valuation more usable in USACE planning by combining rigorous economics and ecology with a streamlined, web-based decision tool, while also deepening knowledge through a focused oyster reef restoration valuation study.

• The Engineer Research and Development Center in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Ecosystem Services Evaluation Decision Research and Development" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.630.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-01-11.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-03-11. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $525,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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