Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Rivers CESU | G19AS00055

Opportunity Information: Apply for G19AS00055

This funding opportunity (G19AS00055) is a discretionary cooperative agreement offered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), through its Core Science Analytics, Synthesis and Libraries (CSASL) Program. It is specifically limited to eligible partners within the Great Rivers Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (CESU). The purpose is highly focused: USGS is seeking a qualified CESU partner that can supply both the technical staff and the computing/data infrastructure needed to carry out a large-scale data extract, transform, and load (ETL) effort. The end goal of that ETL work is to prepare and integrate a very large biodiversity dataset, on the order of 400 million species occurrence records, for inclusion in USGS's Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation (BISON) system (bison.usgs.gov), which serves as a national platform for sharing and accessing species occurrence information.

In practical terms, this opportunity is about building or operating a robust data pipeline capable of pulling in source biodiversity occurrence data, cleaning and standardizing it, transforming it into formats and schemas required by BISON, and loading it into the system in a way that supports search, retrieval, and long-term maintenance. Managing hundreds of millions of records implies the project will need strong data engineering capabilities, attention to performance and scalability, and the ability to handle common biodiversity data challenges such as inconsistent taxonomy, varying spatial and temporal precision, duplicate records, and heterogeneous metadata. The selected CESU partner would be expected to demonstrate they can reliably run such workflows at scale, including quality control and validation steps needed before the records can be used within a national public-facing application.

The award information indicates an expected single award (ExpectedAwards: 1) with a maximum funding amount (AwardCeiling) of $22,000. The funding instrument is a cooperative agreement, which typically means USGS expects to have substantial involvement during the project (for example, coordinating technical requirements, reviewing progress, or collaborating on methods and deliverables) rather than simply providing funds with minimal oversight. The activity category is listed as Science and Technology and other Research and Development, and the CFDA number is 15.808, which aligns with USGS research and data-related assistance programs.

Key administrative details include the posting/creation date of May 6, 2019, and the original closing date of May 20, 2019, indicating a short application window. Eligibility is not open to the general public; it is restricted to CESU partners in the Great Rivers CESU network, as referenced in the notice (with additional eligibility clarification typically provided in the full announcement). Overall, the opportunity is best understood as a targeted request for a specialized partner to support BISON by executing a high-volume biodiversity occurrence data integration effort, emphasizing data engineering capacity, infrastructure readiness, and proven ability to handle very large datasets efficiently and accurately.

• The Department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Rivers CESU" 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 May 06, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 20, 2019. (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 $22,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for G19AS00055

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