National Information Collaboration on Ecohydraulics (NICE): Ecohydraulics of Sensitive Areas | W81EWF 24 SOI 0003

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81EWF 24 SOI 0003

The National Information Collaboration on Ecohydraulics (NICE): Ecohydraulics of Sensitive Areas opportunity is a US Army Corps of Engineers discretionary research program that will fund one cooperative agreement to study how commercial navigation infrastructure and navigation maintenance activities affect fish and other aquatic species in environmentally sensitive areas. The work sits at the intersection of engineering and ecology (ecohydraulics) and is meant to produce practical, science-based guidance that helps the Corps and partners maintain navigation reliability while reducing unintended biological impacts, especially in places where threatened, endangered, and other sensitive native species are present.

This is a two-phase solicitation with a required Statement of Interest (SOI) due December 14, 2023, followed by an invited or full proposal deadline of January 19, 2024. The opportunity number is W81EWF 24 SOI 0003, the funding instrument is a cooperative agreement (meaning the agency expects substantial involvement during the project), and the estimated maximum federal amount is up to $450,000 with one award anticipated. The program is listed under CFDA 12.630 and is categorized as Science and Technology and other Research and Development.

The motivation for the program comes from a long-standing operational reality: the United States has extensive networks of locks, dams, and maintained navigation channels that are essential to commerce, yet fisheries and ecosystem impacts have often not been explicitly built into how these systems are designed and operated. Many dams, particularly across the Mississippi Basin and the southeastern US, were not designed for native fish passage, and there is growing interest in understanding how these structures influence fish movement, population connectivity, and habitat use. At the same time, some navigation structures are being considered as tools for managing aquatic nuisance species, creating a complex balancing act between enabling native fish passage and limiting invasive or harmful species movement. With some native fishes protected under the Endangered Species Act, the need for defensible, field-based evidence and workable operational strategies has become more urgent.

Within that context, NICE is positioned as a national collaboration intended to apply ecohydraulic principles to navigation infrastructure at multiple scales and to improve the ability to forecast fisheries outcomes from engineering and operational decisions. In practical terms, this specific project call emphasizes navigation channel maintenance in sensitive environments, focusing on how to conduct necessary maintenance (and potentially expand where and when maintenance can occur) while minimizing impacts to fish and fisheries resources. The solicitation recognizes that linking dredging and other maintenance actions to biological outcomes is technically and logistically difficult, which is why high-quality studies in real navigation settings are relatively rare and especially valuable.

The work envisioned centers on novel field studies, partnerships, and supporting laboratory studies. A major emphasis is on instrumenting navigation channels and collecting detailed movement and behavior data that can be linked to dredging and maintenance events, including those that occur in narrow operational windows. The solicitation calls for multidimensional tracking in navigation channels, paired with concurrent environmental and hydraulic measurements such as temperature, depth, salinity, and hydraulics. It also signals that studies should include multiple species in order to capture a realistic range of behaviors and vulnerabilities, since different species (and life stages) can respond very differently to vessel traffic, flow fields, turbidity, noise, sediment disturbance, and altered habitat conditions.

While hopper dredging is explicitly mentioned as a key maintenance activity of interest, the opportunity also notes that other maintenance methods can raise similar fisheries concerns and may be considered for additional study, including cutter-head dredging and clamshell dredging. The overarching deliverable value is not simply collecting data, but producing information that can improve procedures, inform timing and location decisions for maintenance, support beneficial use of sediment where feasible, and reduce conflicts between navigation reliability and environmental compliance or fisheries conservation.

Although the background discussion references navigation systems nationwide, anticipated field locations for this effort are in the San Francisco Bay ecosystem, where sensitive species concerns are prominent and where maintenance dredging and navigation operations intersect with complex estuarine hydrodynamics. The public benefit case is framed around preserving and protecting threatened and endangered and other native fish species in San Francisco Bay, particularly given historic population declines that elevate national significance. By improving hydrologic connectivity and reducing harmful impacts from maintenance and infrastructure operations, the program also expects broader ecosystem gains, including healthier trophic balance and biodiversity, along with public-facing benefits such as improved recreational opportunities, sports fishing, water quality, and the long-term value of functioning estuarine ecosystems.

Eligibility is restricted: applicants must be non-federal partners of the Californian Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU). That limitation is important for planning, because it means interested organizations typically need to be part of the CESU network (or work through an eligible CESU partner) to apply.

• The Dept. of the Army -- Corps of Engineers in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "National Information Collaboration on Ecohydraulics (NICE): Ecohydraulics of Sensitive Areas" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.630.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-11-14.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-01-19. (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 $450,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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