Opportunities for Funding

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, aims to promote scientific progress towards the understanding of coastal ecosystem resilience by seeking applications proposing research to 1) characterize, quantify, and define indicators or metrics of resilience for various types of coastal ecosystems, especially those ecosystems that have climate mitigation and adaptation and/or blue (ocean-stored) carbon sequestration potential and 2) develop methods and approaches to advance economic valuation of resilience benefits provided by coastal ecosystems.

In accordance with Section 404 of The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA), as amended, lands and water eligible for reclamation or drainage abatement under Section 404 of Public Law 95-87 (the Act), Stat. 445-532 as amended, are those which were mined for coal or which were affected by mining, waste banks, coal processing, or other coal mining processes prior to August 3, 1977, and left in an unclaimed or inadequately reclaimed condition, for which there is no continuing reclamation responsibility under state or other Federal laws. The Watershed Cooperative Agreement Program (WCAP) is designed to be partnered with other funding sources to assist groups such as small watershed organizations to complete local Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) reclamation projects. Funding is available to assist local 501(c)(3) status organizations and groups that undertake local AMD reclamation projects to improve the water quality of streams impacted by acid mine drainage. The funding priorities and technical focus for this announcement are to restore streams affected by AMD to a level that will support a diverse biological community and provide recreational opportunities for the public. Non-Federal entities may use WCAP funds only for AMD problems related to SMCRA defined abandoned coal mining activities and processes, which include remediation of AMD, sources of AMD, and installation of passive or active water treatment systems, including repairs and renovations. Projects may also include reclamation of lands that are contributing sediment or acid forming materials to streams. For other provisions relating to lands and waters eligible for such expenditures, see Section 402(g)(4), Section 403(b)(1), and Section409 of Public Law 95- 87.

The Bureau of Land Management Arizona Rangeland Management Program administers grazing for more than 155 million acres of public land. This includes, but is not limited to, such things as inventorying, controlling, and managing noxious weeds and invasive species; improving rangelands through grazing management, vegetation restoration treatments, and grazing management structures; and soil resource management. Coordination with land managers and other stakeholders is conducted to complete priority soil surveys, ecological site descriptions, and on-the-ground projects to improve soil stability and reduce erosion. Appropriate management of rangeland and soil resources also support actions and authorizations that include, but are not limited to, such things as endangered and special status species recovery, grazing of domestic livestock, recreation, forest management, hazardous fuels reduction, and post fire rehabilitation. This program supports the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act PL 117-58, Section 40804(b) Ecosystem Restoration and Section 40803 Wildland Risk Reduction. This program supports projects funded through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Sections 50221 Resilience, 50222 Ecosystems Restoration and 50303 DOI.

Funding Opportunity Goals:
1. Conserving and restoring lands to combat climate change: promote climate resilient landscapes by focusing on maintaining/improving land health through appropriate livestock grazing use, management of invasive species and noxious weeds, and managing soil resources.
2. Restoring legacy disturbances: Support restoration of landscapes improving rangelands through grazing management on the ground projects including vegetation restoration treatments, and grazing management structures, and soil resource management.
3. Decision support for adaptive management: To better support land management decisions regarding grazing and other range management treatments, soil management, and invasive species, the BLM will place a priority on collecting data through the use of consistent, comparable, and common indicators, consistent methods, and an unbiased sampling framework which will allow for analyses that are repeatable and comparable across a region, and decisions based on science and data that are legally defensible.

The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Arizona Aquatic Resources Program protects and restores riparian and wetland areas, aquatic habitats, and water resources to provide functioning ecosystems for a combination of balanced and diverse uses including fish and wildlife, and for the long-term needs of future generations. Policy guidance for the Program ensures that public land management based on multiple use and sustained yield provides healthy and productive riparian, wetland, and aquatic habitat, achieves land health standards, and considers society’s long-term needs for healthy watersheds. The issues the Program addresses are diverse and include restoration, habitat fragmentation and degradation, drought resiliency, water availability, and aquatic invasive species. Program staff provide professional expertise and policy guidance to BLM managers, Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments, and non-governmental partners on these issues, and implement the best management practices to minimize or avoid impacts to water resources, riparian and wetland areas, and aquatic habitats on public lands. This program supports projects funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Section 40804 (b) Ecosystem Restoration. This program also supports projects funded through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Sections 50221 Resilience, 50222 Ecosystems Restoration and 50303 DOI.

Funding Opportunity Goals :
1. Ensuring water availability to sustain healthy riparian and wetland areas and aquatic habitats.
2. Restoring degraded water resources, riparian and wetland areas, and aquatic habitats, with a focus on process-based approaches and promoting riverscape health.
3. Advancing decision support models, and the inventory, assessment, and monitoring information that feeds such models, to inform the protection of remaining high quality habitats and the strategic restoration of degraded systems.

Over the last 34 years, NCF has awarded nearly half a billion dollars in funding to support movements, organizations, and individuals pursuing justice for people and the planet. We embrace a ‘totality of assets’ approach to impact, meaning we leverage the full power of the foundation’s financial and non-financial resources to support our partner’s solutions.

The LWCF State and Local Assistance Program was created by Congress in 1964 to assist in preserving, developing and assuring accessibility to present and future generations of U.S. citizens and visitors “such quality and quantity of outdoor recreation resources as may be available and are necessary and desirable for individual active participation in such recreation and to strengthen the health and vitality of the citizens of the United States[.]" This is accomplished in part by authorizing and providing grants to states, and through states to local units of government and federally-recognized Indian tribes, for projects that will provide outdoor recreation opportunities to the public through the acquisition of lands and waters for parks and other outdoor recreation areas, as well as through the development of new, or the renovation of existing, outdoor recreation facilities.The LWCF State and Local Assistance program is operated by the National Park Service (NPS) in partnership with designated lead agencies in each of the 50 states as well as American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Congress allocates money from the LWCF for this program, which is then allocated to the states based on a legislative formula. To be eligible for LWCF grants, states must maintain an approved Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP), which must be updated at least once every five years. Among other things, SCORPs are used to assess the supply and demand for outdoor recreation resources and set priorities for the use of LWCF funds. In 2014, in coordination with Congress and the Secretary of the Interior, NPS created the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership (ORLP) Program, a competitive grant program administered under the authority of the LWCF Act. NPS designed the ORLP with input from Congressional Committee staff, the States, and other interested parties. As designed, the goal of the ORLP Program is to provide new or significantly improve recreation opportunities for disadvantaged communities in larger urbanized areas. With Congressional support, the NPS has funded and issued grants pursuant to the ORLP each year. ORLP grants are selected through an NPS-lead national competition following a solicitation and nomination by the States, and such grants do not count against State apportionments.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) provides up to $1 billion for States and units of local government with the authority to adopt building energy codes to adopt and implement the latest building energy codes, zero energy building codes, or equivalent codes or standards. An energy code is one of several types of building codes that help contribute to the overall health, safety, efficiency, and long-term resilience of buildings. Energy codes can be adopted directly as a standalone code, such as the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), which is commonly adopted by States and local governments. Moreover, energy codes are also fundamental components of certain more broadly adopted building codes, including the International Building Code (IBC) and International Residential Code (IRC), which are referenced in the United States as “parental” codes. Energy codes are often described as a subset of these broader building codes, representing distinct chapters of the IBC and IRC alongside other commonly recognized provisions, such as those pertaining to structural, plumbing, or electrical requirements, and other basic aspects of building design and construction. Adoption and implementation of such codes supports the decarbonization of new and existing residential and commercial buildings. This opportunity assists eligible entities in further decarbonizing their buildings through the adoption of the latest national model building energy codes, zero energy codes, other codes that deliver equivalent or greater energy savings, including innovative approaches to decarbonize existing buildings through certain measurable and enforceable requirements. The IRA is unprecedented in its opportunity to support sustainable change at the State and local level with respect to advancing the energy efficiency of new, renovated, and existing buildings. DOE is particularly interested in supporting States and local governments in implementing local capacity building, multi-year investments in workforce and education, and long-term improvements in building energy codes through multi-cycle adoption and building performance standards (BPS).

The Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP) is authorized and funded by Section 30002 of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, (Public Law 117-169) (the “IRA”), titled “Improving Energy Efficiency or Water Efficiency or Climate Resilience of Affordable Housing.” The program seeks to amplify recent technological advancements in utility efficiency and energy generation, bring a new focus on preparing for climate hazards by reducing residents’ and properties’ exposure to hazards, and protecting life, livability, and property when disaster strikes. GRRP is the first HUD program to simultaneously invest in energy efficiency, energy generation, and climate resilience strategies specifically in HUD-assisted multifamily housing. All of the investments under the GRRP will be made in affordable housing communities serving low-income families in alignment with the Administration’s Justice 40 goals. HUD is offering GRRP funding through three separate cohorts designed to meet the different needs of HUD’s assisted multifamily portfolio.

Round One of the GRRP consists of three cohorts of awards, implemented through three parallel Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs):
The Elements NOFO provides modest awards designed to add proven and highly impactful climate resilience and carbon reduction measures to the construction scopes of in-progress recapitalization transactions.
The Leading Edge NOFO provides funding to Owners aiming to quickly meet ambitious carbon reduction and resilience goals without requiring extensive collaboration with HUD.
The Comprehensive NOFO provides funding to initiate recapitalization investments designed from inception around deep retrofits, focused on innovative energy efficiency and greening measures, renewable energy generation, use of structural building materials with lower embodied carbon, and climate resilience investments.

Comprehensive Awards are designed for the widest range of properties, including those that have not yet developed a recapitalization plan. To the greatest extent feasible, these approaches will: Substantially improve energy and water efficiency, including moving properties toward net zero, zero energy ready, or zero over time energy performance; Address climate resilience, including synergies that can be achieved between efficiency and resilience investments; Enhance indoor air quality and resident health; Implement the use of zero-emission electricity generation and energy storage; Minimize embodied carbon and incorporate low-emission building materials or processes; and Support building electrification.

Authorized by 7 U.S.C. 950aaa, the DLT Program provides financial assistance to enable and improve distance learning and telemedicine services in rural areas. DLT grant funds support the use of telecommunications-enabled information, audio and video equipment, and related advanced technologies by students, teachers, medical professionals, and rural residents. These grants are intended to increase rural access to education, training, and health care resources that are otherwise unavailable or limited in scope.

The regulation for the DLT Program can be found at 7 CFR part 1734. All applicants should carefully review and prepare their applications according to instructions in the FY 2024 DLT Grant Program Application Guide (Application Guide) and program resources. This Application Guide will be made available here and on the program website at https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/distance-learning-telemedicin…. Expenses incurred in developing applications will be at the applicant’s own risk.

RFA 24-1 seeks to fund studies that assess cumulative impacts of chemical and nonchemical stressors on health, tailored to a specific intervention, program, policy, outreach method, or other action aimed at reducing chemical or nonchemical stressor exposures.

RFA Format
Funding for this solicitation will occur in two phases:
· Phase I: During this phase, the aim is to strengthen relationships between community-based organizations (CBO) and research institutes by understanding their mutual research needs and forming diverse research teams spanning various sectors. The focus is on identifying pressing questions regarding community cumulative impacts, identifying relevant decision contexts, and devising actionable solutions that directly address community needs. Throughout this phase, partners will collaborate to shape a clear research question, develop engagement strategies with the community, and outline plans for sharing research progress and findings effectively.
· Phase II: During this phase, plans from Phase I will be put into action. The research team will use innovative or proven methods to conduct a comprehensive assessment of cumulative impacts for a specific decision context. The goal is to share insights in a way that resonates with different groups, ensuring that the information can be used effectively by those who need it most.

Applicants can apply to one of two tracks:
Track 1: Apply directly to Phase I; approval to proceed to Phase II is contingent on achieving specific milestones and outputs established in Phase I.
Track 2: Apply directly to Phase II with a preliminary application, and if invited, a full application that includes many of the outputs that would have resulted from completing Phase I.