Ecological studies on Asian carp in the Upper Illinois and Mississippi Rivers | USGS 18 FA 0160

Opportunity Information: Apply for USGS 18 FA 0160

The grant opportunity titled "Ecological studies on Asian carp in the Upper Illinois and Mississippi Rivers" (Funding Opportunity Number USGS 18 FA 0160) is a discretionary cooperative agreement offered by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) within the Department of the Interior. It supports science and technology research and development activities under CFDA 15.808. The program is designed as a continuation and expansion of prior work conducted under agreement G13AC00069, with the overall goal of improving understanding of Asian carp ecology and movement patterns while evaluating how well different control technologies work in real river conditions.

At its core, the award funds a collaborative research and data-collection partnership between USGS and Western Illinois University (WIU). The rationale for selecting WIU is that the university already has the necessary facilities, equipment, trained labor, and subject-matter expertise to keep the existing research moving forward without the delays and start-up costs that come with building a new program from scratch. Rather than launching an entirely new line of work, the cooperative agreement is meant to maintain continuity with ongoing monitoring and experimentation, while also making the research broader and more useful to management agencies facing expanding carp populations.

The project scope emphasizes several kinds of expansion beyond the earlier effort: collecting more samples to strengthen statistical power and confidence in findings, extending fieldwork into new geographic areas within the Upper Illinois and Mississippi River systems to capture a wider range of habitat and invasion conditions, and adding additional methods that can complement or improve upon previous sampling and tracking approaches. In addition to expanding existing monitoring, the opportunity also anticipates new research components that build directly on past findings and incorporate emerging technologies, reflecting the idea that carp management tools and detection techniques are rapidly evolving and need field validation.

A key practical outcome of the work is decision-support for carp control. By focusing on carp movement and the effectiveness of control technologies, the research aims to generate information that agencies can use to decide where to target interventions, how to time them, and which tools are most likely to be effective under specific river conditions. The opportunity explicitly frames the project as valuable to many agencies working collaboratively, which signals an expectation that results will be broadly shared and applicable across jurisdictions, supporting coordinated regional strategies rather than isolated actions by individual organizations.

Administratively, the opportunity was aimed at eligible applicants that are public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, aligning with the WIU partnership model. The posted award ceiling was $160,000, with an expectation of a single award. The notice was created on August 8, 2018, with an original closing date of August 23, 2018, indicating a short application window consistent with a continuation-style award tied to an established research relationship and an ongoing project trajectory.

• The Department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Ecological studies on Asian carp in the Upper Illinois and Mississippi Rivers" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.808.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 08, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 23, 2018. (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 $160,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education.

Apply for USGS 18 FA 0160

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