GrantExec

FY2025 Weather Program Office Research Programs Announcement - VORTEX USA

Grant Title: FY2025 Weather Program Office Research Programs Announcement - VORTEX USA aims to enhance tornado forecasting and public safety by funding interdisciplinary research that improves warning systems, understands societal vulnerabilities, and utilizes advanced technologies.

$1,500,000
Closed
Nationwide
Grant Description

The NOAA Weather Program Officeโ€™s FY2025 VORTEX-USA funding opportunity seeks research proposals aimed at enhancing tornado prediction, warnings, and communication, with an estimated $2.5 million in funding available annually. This opportunity builds on NOAA's previous VORTEX-SE research, expanding efforts to improve the understanding and mitigation of tornado impacts, especially in regions like the Southeastern U.S., but also extending across the nation. Funded projects are expected to contribute to the timely advancement of tornado-related research for societal benefit, focusing on readiness levels (RL) between 2 and 6, which span from basic research through to early demonstration phases in applied environments. The program has four core priorities: (1) improving actionable public information for the critical period 30 minutes to 4 hours before tornado events, enhancing forecaster tools and public messaging, especially through advanced technologies; (2) examining and reducing social vulnerabilities to tornado impacts, with particular interest in socioeconomic factors and housing types; (3) understanding how tornado-induced near-surface winds interact with both natural and built environments to cause damage, aiming for better response and mitigation strategies; and (4) advancing tornado prediction through refined models, data assimilation techniques, and leveraging past VORTEX data, including studies of low-impact events for potential predictive indicators. The NOAA Science Plan provides further details on these areas of focus. Eligible applicants include U.S.-based institutions from public and private sectors, academic entities, and state, local, and tribal governments. Federal employees may participate as collaborators but are not eligible for direct funding. Applicants must complete necessary registrations in SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and eRA Commons well in advance of submission deadlines. There are no matching fund requirements for this opportunity, but applicants are expected to carefully adhere to eligibility and application guidelines. Applicants are encouraged to submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) by October 2, 2024, to receive feedback regarding alignment with program priorities. Full applications are due by December 2, 2024, with anticipated funding decisions in June 2025 and projects starting as early as August 2025. The full proposal must include a project narrative outlining objectives, methodology, anticipated outputs, and impacts, as well as a comprehensive budget, data management plan, and, where applicable, a software management plan. Proposals involving multiple institutions should designate a lead principal investigator (PI) and provide budget breakdowns per institution. Proposals will be evaluated on their relevance to program priorities, technical merit, team qualifications, cost-effectiveness, and inclusion of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) considerations. Successful projects will address pressing issues related to tornado forecasting, societal impact, and response, with DEIA playing a role in outreach and community engagement efforts. Required reports include semi-annual progress updates and a final comprehensive report, with public sharing of results encouraged to maximize program visibility and impact.

Funding Details

Award Range

$100,000 - $1,500,000

Total Program Funding

Not specified

Number of Awards

Not specified

Matching Requirement

No

Eligibility

Eligible Applicants

State governments
City or township governments
County governments
Native American tribal organizations
Nonprofits

Additional Requirements

Applicants are responsible for ensuring that they are eligible for this competition and identify with the appropriate title listed hereafter. The following entities are eligible and encouraged to participate in this funding opportunity, in conjunction with the Weather Program office: any public or private corporation, partnership, or other association or entity or any State, political subdivision of a State, Tribal government or agency or officer thereof. Non-NOAA federal agencies and their personnel are not permitted to receive federal funding under this competition; however, federal scientists and other employees can serve as uncompensated partners or co-Principal Investigators on applications. Federal labs and offices can also make available specialized expertise, facilities or equipment to applicants but cannot be compensated under this competition for their use, nor can the value of such assets be used as a match. If any applicants requesting funding are ineligible, the application(s) will be rejected without review.To be eligible to apply or receive an award, applicant organizations must complete and maintain three system registrations and access to include: SAM.gov, Grants.gov, and eRA Commons. For each, the complete registration process can take 4 to 6 weeks, so applicants must begin this activity as soon as possible and well before the proposal due date. For more information on how to meet these registration and application submission requirements without errors, we advise all to carefully review relevant eRA Applicant and Grantee Training modules: https://www.commerce.gov/ocio/programs/gems/applicant-and-grantee-training. Additionally, we advise that all applicants carefully read Additional Application Package Forms within the Full Proposal Required Elements section below.No foreign applicants based outside of the U.S. may request funding.Applicability to Federal Employees and Federal Contractors: Federal employees (hereafter referred to as federal collaborator(s)) may serve as co-Principal Investigators (co-PIs) or co-Investigators (co-Is) but their salary costs are ineligible expenses to be covered by awards from this NOFO. NOAA Federal applicants are required to partner with one or more eligible non-federal institution(s) who would submit the application for the competition through Grants.gov per instructions in Section IV.K Other Submission Requirements. Eligibility also depends on the statutory authority that permits NOAA to fund the proposed activity. For the purposes of this funding announcement, prospective PIs that are also employed as federal contractors have the same eligibility restrictions as Federal employees.Costs incurred by NOAA federal collaborators are eligible for funding through this NOFO only if they fit into one of the categories listed below. Further details are provided in the attached General Information Sheet.Allowed: NOAA federal collaborator travel is only eligible in critical project-dependent cases. Other allowable expenses include project-critical equipment, indirect costs for NOAA affiliate institutions, infrastructure, and testbed-related costs.NOT Allowed: Conference and workshop travel. Any other direct funding for federal institutions, including employee salaries or other costs not listed as eligible in Section III.A, will not be considered as part of this funding opportunity.All funded investigators must assure and verify, if requested, that they will not be allocated for greater than 100% of their annual employment time should their proposal be selected for funding. NOAA will verify this requirement if the proposal is recommended for funding.

Geographic Eligibility

All

Key Dates

Application Opens

September 17, 2024

Application Closes

December 2, 2024

Contact Information

Grantor

Jordan Dale

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