Cooperative Agreement with Participating Partner of the Great Lakes Northern Forests (CESU) Program. | G21AS00469

Opportunity Information: Apply for G21AS00469

This grant opportunity is a US Geological Survey (USGS) cooperative agreement aimed at improving how prey fish populations are measured across the Great Lakes. USGS is supporting the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and the Great Lakes Council of Lake Committees (CLC) by funding annual, lake-wide acoustic estimates of prey fish abundance in all five Great Lakes. The work centers on active, down-looking acoustic surveys using scientific echosounders deployed from USGS vessels, with current survey operations specifically noted for Lakes Michigan, Huron, Ontario, and Superior. The core idea is that these standardized, repeatable acoustic surveys generate key information that fisheries managers rely on year after year.

The practical purpose of the project is to strengthen management decisions that depend heavily on reliable prey-fish data. Those data feed directly into predator stocking decisions (for example, how many salmonids or other predators to stock), evaluations of changes in lake productivity over time, and restoration planning for coregonines (a group that includes several cisco and whitefish species important to Great Lakes ecosystems and fisheries). Because these decisions are only as good as the underlying monitoring data, the opportunity emphasizes improving accuracy and usefulness of the survey outputs for real-world management.

A major focus is identifying, quantifying, and reducing sampling bias in the existing USGS prey fish density surveys. Acoustic surveys can be powerful, but they are also sensitive to methodological issues such as how targets are detected and classified, how survey transects are designed, how fish behavior affects detectability, and how calibration and processing choices influence density estimates. The funding is intended to support efforts that recognize major sources of bias and implement approaches to eliminate or minimize them, resulting in more trustworthy abundance estimates and better products delivered to Great Lakes resource managers.

Administratively, this is issued under the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program, which is designed to streamline collaboration among federal agencies and a network of partner institutions that provide research, technical assistance, and education. Because it is a CESU-funded opportunity, eligibility is limited: applicants must be participating partners of the Great Lakes Northern Forests CESU. The award mechanism is a cooperative agreement, meaning USGS is expected to have substantial involvement in the project rather than simply issuing a grant with minimal agency engagement.

Key details from the notice include the opportunity title "Cooperative Agreement with Participating Partner of the Great Lakes Northern Forests (CESU) Program" and funding opportunity number G21AS00469. It is a discretionary funding opportunity from the USGS (agency name: Geological Survey) in the Science and Technology/Research and Development category, listed under CFDA 15.808. The maximum award amount (ceiling) is $499,999. The opportunity was created on April 14, 2021, with an original closing date of April 30, 2021. Eligible applicants are categorized as "Others," but in practice that is constrained to organizations that are formal CESU partners within the Great Lakes Northern Forests network.

• The Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Agreement with Participating Partner of the Great Lakes Northern Forests (CESU) Program." 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 2021-04-14.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-04-30. (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 $499,999.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for G21AS00469

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