CESU GRRI – Leadership, Coordination, and Administrative Oversight for the Great Rivers Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit | NPS NOIP15AC01749

Opportunity Information: Apply for NPS NOIP15AC01749

This grant opportunity, titled "CESU GRRI - Leadership, Coordination, and Administrative Oversight for the Great Rivers Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit," is a National Park Service (NPS) cooperative agreement intended to fund the core coordination and administrative functions of the Great Rivers Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU). It sits under an existing master cooperative agreement (P13AC00772) between the Department of the Interior/NPS and the Curators of the University of Missouri, which serves as the host institution for the Great Rivers CESU. The overall purpose is not to fund a single research study, but to keep the Great Rivers CESU functioning effectively as a multi-partner collaboration platform that helps federal agencies and nonfederal partners work together on applied research, technical assistance, and education tied to natural and cultural resource stewardship.

The CESU Network itself is a nationwide consortium created by Congress in 1998 and now includes hundreds of partners and multiple federal agencies across many biogeographic regions. CESUs are designed to connect resource managers, scientists, students, and institutions across disciplines to solve real-world conservation and stewardship problems at ecosystem scales. Each CESU operates like a "virtual organization" anchored by a host university, and the host institution is expected to provide leadership, coordination, administrative infrastructure, and partner-facing communication tools. The opportunity explains that the CESU Network Council (the interagency governing body made up of senior representatives from the participating federal agencies) provides annual financial assistance to support these host-university responsibilities, because without day-to-day coordination the network cannot generate partnerships, projects, and workforce development opportunities effectively.

From a compliance standpoint, the award is governed by the Uniform Guidance in 2 CFR Part 200, which takes precedence over older OMB circulars referenced in legacy federal assistance agreements. In practice, that means the recipient must manage funds, procurement, reporting, and audit responsibilities consistent with current federal grant administration standards, while also following any master agreement terms that are not superseded by 2 CFR 200.

The funding is structured as a discretionary cooperative agreement (not a procurement contract), which signals substantial federal involvement in the project. The published opportunity details indicate one expected award with an award ceiling of $60,000. The CFDA (now Assistance Listing) number is 15.945, and eligibility is limited to public and state-controlled institutions of higher education. In this case, the described recipient/host role is held by the Curators of the University of Missouri. The original posting dates show it was created on August 31, 2017 with an original closing date of September 14, 2017.

The project objectives are essentially the operational backbone of the Great Rivers CESU. The host institution must appoint a Principal Investigator and staff and/or students as needed, then carry out a defined set of coordination tasks that the CESU Council has prioritized. Those priorities include: facilitating communication among existing and prospective partners; managing the process for adding new partners; coordinating strategic planning and annual planning/reporting with partners; and maintaining a host-sponsored local CESU website. The opportunity stresses that these functions are foundational because they enable project formation, information sharing, partner recruitment, and alignment with national CESU policies and the broader CESU Network.

A large portion of the statement of work is devoted to communications and partner services. The recipient is expected to keep partner technical and administrative contact information current and publicly accessible online in coordination with the CESU Network National Office. The host is also expected to routinely distribute updates through emails, newsletters, and potentially social media about CESU activities such as events, new partner announcements, awards, projects, and funding opportunities. Another ongoing task is relaying practical opportunities to partners and the university community, including requests for proposals or statements of interest, training and professional development options, and student employment opportunities. The host also convenes periodic executive committee and partner calls, serves as a liaison to the CESU Network National Office and the CESU Network Council, participates in national CESU Director calls, responds to information requests, and conducts outreach aimed at long-term program sustainability. That outreach emphasis includes fostering participation by new institutions, including minority-serving institutions, encouraging cross-partner collaboration, and engaging students where appropriate.

The opportunity also lays out a specific role for the host institution in expanding the CESU partnership. The recipient must develop and post a written new-partner policy consistent with national CESU policy, including application steps, timelines, deadlines, expectations such as applicant presentations at partner meetings, and voting procedures. The host then manages the workflow: following up with prospective partners, distributing applications for review, facilitating partner voting, documenting outcomes, and helping the CESU Network National Office with any agreement amendments needed to officially add partners. This matters because CESUs are governed by formal cooperative and joint venture agreements, so partner additions are not informal; they require documented review and an amendment process.

Planning and documentation requirements are another central deliverable. The recipient must facilitate and coordinate the creation and maintenance of the CESU strategic plan and annual reports/work plans, ensuring partners participate meaningfully in planning discussions. The host is responsible for drafting support, coordinating edits and reviews, distributing final documents to partners, and posting them on the CESU website. This planning work is framed as both accountability (showing what the CESU is doing) and alignment (making sure local priorities connect to national CESU direction and partner needs).

Website maintenance is treated as a required operational tool rather than an optional outreach activity. The host must maintain a local CESU website with basic unit information, a current partner list and contacts, and key administrative documents such as the cooperative and joint venture agreements, amendments, strategic and annual plans, and the new-partner application policy. In addition, the host must gather, summarize, and post annual CESU project data in line with the CESU agreement requirements, effectively creating an accessible record of projects and outcomes.

Because this is a cooperative agreement, NPS is not simply issuing funds and stepping back. NPS commits to coordinating and administering the financial assistance on behalf of the CESU Network Council and to actively collaborating on the work. Specific federal personnel are assigned: an Agreements Technical Representative (Thomas Fish), a Project Manager (Nicole Athearn), and a Project Participant (Cheri Yost). The Project Manager role includes technical review, logistical support, collaborative project management decision-making throughout the period of performance, and helping organize and lead Great Rivers CESU Federal Managers Committee conference calls. The ATR and Project Participant serve as key liaisons between the CESU Director and the CESU Network Council, communicating guidance and policy, helping update information resources and administrative documents, coordinating meetings across the CESU Director community and national offices, and supporting dissemination of CESU resources through broader CESU and NPS channels.

NPS staff also provide hands-on support during sensitive governance processes, especially new partner approval and agreement amendments. They are expected to respond to questions from the director and partners, provide consultation and oversight during application review and voting, and work closely through amendment preparation, review, signature routing, distribution, and posting of fully executed amendments. Similarly, they participate in strategic and annual planning discussions, provide substantive feedback on planning documents, and help circulate planning outputs to the broader CESU Network. Another explicit federal role is ensuring alignment between local and national CESU information resources, including synchronizing partner contact information between the local website and the CESU Network national website, and supporting consistent posting of project data collected from federal and nonfederal partners.

Taken together, the opportunity is best understood as funding for governance, coordination, and information infrastructure that makes the Great Rivers CESU usable and sustainable. Rather than paying for a stand-alone research deliverable, it pays for the leadership and administrative capacity that enables many future research, technical assistance, and educational projects to be formed quickly and managed effectively across agencies and institutions. The stated public purpose is to strengthen collaborative conservation and stewardship by improving communication, building partnerships, producing credible and usable knowledge, developing professional capacity, and creating applied learning opportunities for students who work directly with federal scientists and resource managers on real management problems.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the education, employment, labor and training, environment, natural resources, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "CESU GRRI – Leadership, Coordination, and Administrative Oversight for the Great Rivers Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.945.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 31, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 14, 2017. (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 $60,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education.

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