Northeast, Pacific Islands, and South Central Climate Adaptation Science Centers

Purpose of this Announcement

1. This Announcement seeks to identify applicant organizations that propose to host and, as applicable, serve as consortium partners for a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Climate Adaptation Science Center (CASC) in the regions indicated below, and to determine if their proposed science, partnership, and program support activities and strategies are appropriate to serve in the following roles:
• Northeast, Pacific Islands, and South Central Climate Adaptation Science Centers. The geographic footprints for potential hosts of these CASCs are indicated in the map below (see Attachment A). The high-level climate science focus areas anticipated for these CASCs are described in Attachment C.

2. Once selected, the recipient will be established as the Host Institution for the respective regional CASC. As a Host, an institution will be the sole entity eligible to receive funding to conduct follow-on research/science projects anticipated as a part of this Program Announcement. Host Institutions may engage with other institutions, including by subaward, as part of these projects.

Program Description - The USGS Climate Adaptation Science Center Network

1. USGS has established a network of geographically dispersed Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASC) (see Learn About the Regional CASCs | U.S. Geological Survey (usgs.gov)). The USGS, through the National Climate Adaptation Science Center (NCASC), manages the CASCs (see Climate Adaptation Science Centers | U.S. Geological Survey (usgs.gov)). CASCs are based at organizations (hereafter termed Hosts or Host Institutions) that provide suitable facilities, partnerships, science, capacity building, communications, and programmatic capabilities, either alone or in combination with other partners (“consortium partners”). At the national level, USGS (through the National CASC) provides executive staffing and administrative support, conducts a program to link and synthesize CASC research activities, and provides communication data management, and information technology strategy coordination.

2. The goal of each CASC is to work with regional managers of land, water, fish and wildlife, as well as nearshore, coastal, and cultural heritage resources in order to identify high priority resource management and decision needs for which information on climate change, impacts, and adaptation is needed. As an objective, each CASC works to deliver scientific information and tools that can help resource managers develop strategies, policies, programs, and activities for responding to climate change.

3. Each regional CASC has a Host institution component and a federal component. They have distinct funding, personnel, and work plans but work together with a collaborative approach towards a common mission. In general, the federal component’s focus is on developing science priorities and a science agenda, as well as longer-term research and synthesis activities – especially when these span multiple funding cycles. The Host institution component’s focus is generally on science implementation, communications, and outreach. Specifically, the primary functions of CASCs – including the Host institutions and the federal component together – are to:

a. Identify priority management needs through ongoing interactions with resource management entities within the region and identify scientific information and tools that may inform these management challenges. Wherever possible, this should involve an appropriate level of co-development, which entails processes and relationship-building to frame management questions, understand the objectives of managers and other key stakeholders, develop science/research plans to address management questions, and ensure the appropriate transfer and use of information to improve management of natural and cultural resources in a changing climate.

b. Identify impacts of climate change and current management strategies on priority species, habitats/ecosystems, ecosystem goods and services, and other natural and cultural resources within the region, as guided by the management priorities identified above.

c. Translate, integrate, aggregate, and synthesize existing or new scientific information to meet key information needs identified in conjunction with natural and cultural resource managers.

d. Work with partners to identify, evaluate, and provide science to design, implement, and evaluate adaptation strategies to address identified climate impacts (along with other stressors such as land use or land cover change) on priority resources.

e. Provide student researchers or post-doctoral researchers at each CASC experiences that help them understand high-priority resource management challenges, the management objectives of key stakeholders, how science can provide information about the impacts of potential policies on these management challenges and objectives, and how to interface with a broad variety of community and resource related groups.

f. Foster development and use of research products by conducting capacity-building activities.

g. Provide science translation, leading communities of practice, holding scientific workshops and forums, and developing scientific outreach materials for or with resource managers and relevant partners in the region.

h. Provide information management capacity and infrastructure for the Center’s research activities. This does not include the development of regionally specific data portals, repositories, or online data management systems. CASCs should leverage the infrastructure developed and supported by NCASC (See Section D2.2.B. Proposal Contents – Technical Proposal Narrative, for details).