Colorado Science and Technology Grants

This funding opportunity is designed for partners affiliated with the Colorado Plateau Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit to conduct research on drought conditions and sagebrush habitat resilience in dryland ecosystems.

This grant provides funding for organizations in the Colorado Plateau or Desert Southwest regions to conduct bat surveys and conservation efforts at Fort Carson and the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, focusing on protecting species like the tricolored bat from threats such as white-nose syndrome.

This funding opportunity provides financial support for research projects focused on improving ecological restoration practices in the Colorado Plateau region, particularly in response to climate change and soil water challenges.

This funding opportunity is designed for research organizations affiliated with the Colorado Plateau Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit to study and improve land management practices that reduce wildfire risks and restore ecosystems in the southwestern United States.

This funding opportunity is designed for research institutions and partners within the Colorado Plateau CESU network to develop software and data visualization tools that enhance long-term water quality monitoring at Lake Powell.

This funding opportunity is designed for partners affiliated with the Colorado Plateau Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit to develop advanced camera-based water monitoring technology for the U.S. Geological Survey's national network.

The U.S. Geological Survey is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research supporting communications and technical transfer of sagebrush and fire related science. Successful applicants will work with the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area staff to plan and host a public-facing webinar or workshop to increase and improve technical transfer of management-relevant science, data, and tools to improve ecosystem resiliency in the sagebrush biome and increase durability of on-the-ground management actions informed by co-produced science.

The U.S. Geological Survey Southwest Biological Science Center (SBSC) is offering a funding opportunity to provide research to (1) understand the biotic and abiotic constraints on successful reclamation, (2) develop reclamation effectiveness assessment workflows, and (3) identify management practices that promote reclamation success. These are currently significant scientific challenges for management of surface disturbance following oil and gas developed and other land disturbing activities in arid landscapes.

The US Geological Survey is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research on pollinators of northern Arizona throughout semi-arid grasslands that are utilized by bison. This research will be primarily comprised of field-based data collection prior to analyses of quantified biological data. The goal of this research is to examine pollinator communities, resources, and habitat quality in relation to areas of varying bison densities. Previous grazing exclusion experiments in this ecosystem revealed grazing-induced ecological changes that lead to altered grassland structure (i.e., plant species composition) and function (i.e., plant production, nutrient dynamics) (Musto 2023). However, no information has been collected on whether (and how) bison-induced changes to plant communities may affect the pollinator communities that utilize flowing plants as food resources and habitat.

The U.S. Geological Survey Southwest Biological Science Center (SBSC) is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research to help build a program to (1) increase the understanding of how new soil and vegetation mapping products can improve land management decisions on western lands, (2) improve land-potential based decision tools, including state-and-transition models, and (3) increase the understanding of how drought and herbivory impact western lands. These are currently significant scientific challenges for management of large western landscapes in the face of climate change, drought, wildfire, and ongoing and changing land uses.