For the second consecutive year, the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, in collaboration with The Water Institute of the Gulf, is offering two programs focused on fostering applied research and identifying innovations that will enable CPRA to more effectively protect and restore coastal Louisiana.
Coastal Innovation Partnership Program
The Coastal Innovation Partnership Program will solicit and evaluate cutting-edge technologies and other innovations that could be used by CPRA or other coastal entities to achieve the most efficient, cost effective and sustainable approaches to project implementation, monitoring and adaptive management.
All interested parties, including individuals, teams and organizations, are eligible to submit an application for review. Applications will be evaluated based on a number of criteria, including proven success in improving project or program outcomes and relevance to the 2012 Coastal Master Plan.
Pre-applications are due on January 6, 2014 at 5:00 PM. Pre-applications will be reviewed by The Water Institute of the Gulf and recommendations will be made to CPRA regarding how to best utilize these innovations within the coastal program.
For more information, please visit www.thewaterinstitute.org/innovation.
CPRA Applied Research Program
The CPRA Applied Research Program will provide Louisiana-based researchers with funds to conduct engineering and science research and tool development activities that will enable CPRA to more effectively protect and restore coastal resources.
Research topics that are of particular interest under this Request for Proposals include, but are not limited to:
- Understanding and reducing uncertainties in project engineering and design, implementation, and sustainability.
- Reducing uncertainties regarding predictions of future environmental conditions.
- Improving data collection and utility for assessment, predictive models, and decision-support tools.
- Understanding the dynamics of the social, environmental and economic coastal system, and the effects of land loss and implementation of the Master Plan on these systems.
- Understanding social, cultural, and economic resilience and adaptability of coastal communities to natural disaster impacts and long-term land loss.
Institutions or organizations that apply must have an office in Louisiana and the Principal Investigator must be domiciled in Louisiana to be eligible. Academic institutions are the main focus of the program, but private entities, non-governmental organizations, non-profit organizations and governmental agencies are also eligible.
It is anticipated that approximately $250,000 will be available to fund an estimated 2-5 research projects, with 1-2 of these having total budgets less than $25,000. The number of awards and their level of funding depend on the quality and relevance of proposals received.
Submission deadline for proposals is February 7, 2014 at 5:00 PM.
For more information, please visit www.thewaterinstitute.org/appliedresearch.