FY 2025 South Florida Program

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4 Water Division, has released the 2025 South Florida Program funding opportunity under the number EPA-I-R4-SFL-2025-01. This program provides competitive cooperative agreements to address the ecological pressures facing South Florida waters, which are central to the region’s environmental and economic well-being. The program is designed to support experiments, studies, surveys, demonstrations, research, trainings, and investigations that inform management decisions, provide ecological understanding, and guide EPA policy related to South Florida’s aquatic ecosystems:contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}. The program anticipates making up to 20 awards, each ranging between $250,000 and $750,000, with a total funding availability of $8 million. Projects are expected to last three to five years. Cooperative agreements funded under this opportunity require substantial involvement from EPA project and technical officers, including monitoring of performance, collaboration, review of reports, and approval of quality assurance planning documents. Projects must include environmental data collection and therefore require an EPA-approved Quality Assurance Project Plan prior to work initiation:contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}. Eligible applicants include states, local governments, U.S. territories and possessions, Indian Tribes, intertribal consortia, institutions of higher education, hospitals, laboratories, and nonprofit organizations. For-profit organizations are not eligible to apply, although they may serve as contractors under awarded projects. All applications must focus on activities within or directly relevant to the South Florida Program geographic boundaries, as illustrated in the program map. Applications must also address at least one of the program’s priority areas, which include aquatic habitat restoration, addressing severe weather and water resource issues, water quality monitoring and modeling, support for local community-based projects, Florida’s coral reef health, reduction of harmful algal blooms, and stormwater/nutrient pollutant reduction:contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}. Applications are due through Grants.gov no later than October 29, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. A pre-budget webinar will be held on September 24, 2025, and interested applicants must request an invitation by September 10, 2025. Anticipated notification of selection is scheduled for December 2025, with formal award notices expected by September 2026. Projects are recommended to begin between June 1 and September 1, 2026. Applications must include required federal forms (SF-424, SF-424A, EPA Key Contacts, EPA Form 4700-4), a detailed project narrative, budget narrative, and supporting attachments. Specific formatting requirements apply, including a 16-page limit for proposals and 14-page limit for attachments:contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}. The review process involves threshold eligibility checks followed by scoring based on established evaluation criteria. Projects will be evaluated on their relevance to management needs, scientific merit, feasibility and milestone schedule, past performance, expected outputs and outcomes, budget reasonableness, leveraging of other funds, strength of partnerships, and plans for information transfer. Each application can earn up to 100 points, and selections will be made by the Region 4 Water Division Director with consideration of geographic distribution, program priorities, and available funding:contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}. Technical and program-specific questions should be directed to Elizabeth Smith at smith.elizabeth@epa.gov, while eligibility questions should be addressed to Adekunle Adesiji at adesiji.adekunle@epa.gov. Administrative questions related to the pre-budget webinar can be directed to Jennifer Shadle at shadle.jennifer@epa.gov. Award recipients will be expected to submit annual and final performance reports, comply with EPA data management and reporting requirements, and coordinate with federal and regional partners, particularly for projects within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. These grants represent a significant federal investment in protecting and restoring South Florida’s unique and sensitive aquatic environments:contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5}.