Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Californian Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit | G22AS00399

Opportunity Information: Apply for G22AS00399

This funding opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number G22AS00399) is a discretionary cooperative agreement issued by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) under the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program, specifically tied to the Californian CESU. The core purpose is to support applied research and development in science and technology that improves how crop production outcomes are anticipated, especially in data-constrained settings. Because it is offered through the CESU framework, it is designed to leverage established partnerships that combine research capacity, technical expertise, and education-oriented collaboration between federal agencies and affiliated institutions.

The work scope focuses on two closely related research needs. First, USGS is seeking advances in long-lead crop yield forecasting and crop condition outlooks. "Long-lead" forecasting generally means producing useful yield expectations earlier in the growing season (or even before key growth stages), which can help decision-makers plan for food supply risks, market shocks, and humanitarian needs. Crop condition outlooks complement yield forecasts by providing an assessment of how crops are developing relative to normal conditions, often informed by climate signals, remote sensing indicators, and agro-environmental modeling. Together, these outputs can support earlier and more actionable assessments of potential shortfalls or surpluses.

Second, the opportunity emphasizes developing methods that can generate crop yield forecasts and crop condition outlooks for FEWS NET countries where sub-national crop yield data are missing, incomplete, or too limited to support conventional modeling. FEWS NET (Famine Early Warning Systems Network) supports early warning and analysis related to food insecurity, and many of the countries it monitors face major gaps in agricultural statistics below the national level. This part of the scope points to methodological innovation: approaches that can still produce credible, decision-relevant estimates when ground truth data are sparse. In practice, that often implies creative use of alternative data sources (for example, satellite-derived vegetation and evapotranspiration metrics, weather reanalysis products, soil moisture estimates, crop calendars, and limited survey or administrative data), along with statistical or machine learning techniques that can handle sparse labels, transfer learning across regions, or model calibration under uncertainty.

Administratively, the award instrument is a cooperative agreement, not a standard grant. That distinction matters because cooperative agreements typically involve substantial involvement by the federal agency during the project. In other words, USGS is likely to collaborate more directly on technical direction, integration with agency priorities, and possibly on review of methods, data workflows, or how outputs are operationalized. The activity category is listed as "Science and Technology and other Research and Development," and the CFDA (Assistance Listing) number is 15.808, which corresponds to USGS research and related assistance.

Eligibility is narrow and specific: applicants must be participating partners of the Californian Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit. The opportunity lists eligible applicants as "Others," but that is constrained by the CESU requirement. CESUs are partnership networks intended to streamline collaboration and funding for research, technical assistance, and education, so the award is essentially reserved for institutions already formally affiliated with the Californian CESU.

Key funding details included in the notice are an award ceiling of $618,180 and an original closing date of September 6, 2022, with a creation date of August 4, 2022. While the notice references expected awards, the number of expected awards is not specified in the provided text. Overall, this opportunity supports applied research that improves early warning and forecasting for agricultural production, with a clear emphasis on practicality in regions where traditional sub-national yield datasets are not available, aligning closely with the needs of FEWS NET-style food security monitoring and planning.

• The Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Californian Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit" 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 2022-08-04.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-09-06. (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 $618,180.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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