Disrupting and Managing Riverine and other Large-Scale Freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms | W81EWF 24 SOI 0032

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81EWF 24 SOI 0032

This funding opportunity, titled "Disrupting and Managing Riverine and other Large-Scale Freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms," is a discretionary cooperative agreement from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), specifically through ERDC, focused on applied research and field demonstration of new, practical technologies that can disrupt and/or manage harmful algal blooms (HABs) in rivers and other large freshwater systems. The core problem the agency is trying to solve is that HABs are becoming more frequent and lasting longer, creating serious public health risks, disrupting recreation, and generating large economic losses. Riverine HABs are highlighted as especially challenging because they can extend for hundreds of miles, persist for weeks, and cause widespread impacts across communities, infrastructure, and operations.

The program is designed as a three-year effort (contingent on appropriations) built around an interdisciplinary collaboration between USACE and a university partner. ERDC is not simply asking for basic research or monitoring; the emphasis is on demonstrating candidate technologies in real-world conditions and generating evidence that those approaches can work at the scale and complexity of large rivers. The opportunity recognizes that scalable, cost-effective tools are needed not only to detect and predict blooms earlier, but also to actively manage them in ways that reduce their severity and footprint. While the solicitation is open to "novel technology (or technologies)," it defines technology broadly as the application of knowledge, methods, and approaches that lead to a practical means of disrupting and/or managing large-scale freshwater HABs.

Proposals are expected to be structured around clear technical questions and measurable objectives. Applicants must lay out what questions the project will answer (technical objectives), what tasks and data are required to answer them (data quality objectives), and what will be delivered each year (deliverables by task and by year). The solicitation encourages teams to leverage existing federal and state HAB programs and datasets rather than reinventing monitoring from scratch, and it asks applicants to define both quantitative and qualitative success criteria for each task so results can be judged in a transparent, decision-relevant way.

The work is organized into four main requirements. First, the awardee must develop a detailed workplan that identifies the candidate technology or technologies, any needed optimization or refinement, the proposed field demonstration site or sites, and a field work plan. Because in-water testing may require regulatory approvals, the university partner is responsible for obtaining permits before in-water work is approved. The timeline matters: the program expects technology demonstrations to occur at minimum in years 2 and 3, meaning year 1 is largely for planning, design, permitting, coordination, and readiness. Importantly, the agency calls out a real operational challenge: riverine blooms can be sporadic, may appear with little warning, or may not occur during the project window at all. For that reason, preproposals are expected to include contingency planning and an adaptive strategy that still allows project objectives to be met even if natural bloom conditions do not align neatly with the research schedule.

Second, the funded partner must carry out the approved workplan and produce data in sufficient quantity and quality to satisfy the stated data quality objectives. This underscores that the program is aiming for defensible, usable results rather than anecdotal demonstrations. Third, the team must produce draft and final reports describing objectives, methods, and results, and they must ensure public accessibility of the data generated. Data collected during the project must be uploaded to the Water Quality Portal (waterqualitydata.us), and the final products must include end-user guidance that helps others apply the demonstrated technology to different river systems and ecoregions. In other words, ERDC wants outcomes that can be transferred beyond a single site, not a one-off pilot that only works under very specific local conditions.

Fourth, the solicitation strongly encourages active engagement with tribal, federal, state, and local partners who have knowledge of the river system being studied. Applicants must identify which stakeholders will be involved and explain how they will be engaged throughout key phases, including planning, execution, and development of final deliverables. This reflects an expectation that successful HAB management technologies need to fit the realities of local governance, operations, and community concerns, and that implementation pathways should be considered alongside technical performance.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity number is W81EWF 24 SOI 0032, with an original closing date of 2024-08-30. The award ceiling is $500,000, with an expectation of two awards. The funding instrument is a cooperative agreement, which typically implies substantial involvement by the federal partner during the project, especially around coordination, technical direction, and alignment with agency needs. Eligibility is restricted: only non-federal partners of the Great Lakes-Northern Forest and Gulf Coast Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Units (CESUs) can apply, which narrows the applicant pool to organizations affiliated with those CESU networks.

The public benefit case is straightforward and central to the solicitation: HABs have direct human health implications and major economic consequences, and large-scale blooms in rivers can disrupt multiple jurisdictions and sectors at once. By funding applied research that culminates in field demonstrations and publicly accessible data and guidance, USACE is aiming to accelerate practical solutions that reduce bloom severity and scale, support safer water use, and help communities and resource managers respond more effectively across diverse freshwater systems.

• The Dept. of the Army -- Corps of Engineers in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Disrupting and Managing Riverine and other Large-Scale Freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.630.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-07-09.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-08-30. (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 $500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 2 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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