The Maryland Water Resources Research Center (MWRRC) announces the release of the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the FY 2020 National Competitive Grant Program by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the National Institutes for Water Resources.

Proposals are requested on the topics of improving and enhancing the nation’s water supply and availability, and promoting the exploration of new ideas that address or expand our understanding of water problems. Proposals must address one of the four high priority research areas listed in the RFP:

• Expand and enhance the use of hydrologic monitoring data monitoring to support advanced modeling tools to provide state-of-the-art flood and drought forecasts, drive emergency-and water-management decision support systems.
• Research to help society deal with water scarcity or water availability challenges such as drought, snow pack, and/or changes in runoff regimes.
• Development and evaluation of processes and governance mechanisms that advance the science of ecological flows.
• Exploration and advancement of our understanding of harmful algae blooms (HABs). Proposals are sought that focus on innovations in monitoring the occurrence of HABs and algal toxins, research on factors that result in algal toxin production, and improvements in near-real time modeling and forecasting of toxin-producing blooms.

Any investigator at an institution of higher learning in Maryland is eligible to apply through the MWRRC. Projects will only be awarded if funds are appropriated to the USGS to support the program.

Proposals may be for projects of 1 to 3 years in duration, may request up to $250,000 in federal funds, and require a 1:1 (non-federal:federal) match. Proposals in PDF format must be emailed to the MWRRC Director Dr. Kaye Brubaker at kbru<at-symbol>umd.edu by 5 p.m., March 9, 2020 to allow adequate time for MWRRC to submit the proposals by the March 19 deadline for institutes. Only proposals submitted to MWRRC by March 9 will be transmitted to the National Grants Competition Proposal Peer Review Panel.

Additional information about research priorities, proposal content, format and review process are available in the RFP.