The U.S. Geological Survey will award up to $2 million in cooperative agreements to support participation in the National Ground-Water Monitoring Network (NGWMN).

The NGWMN is designed as a cooperative groundwater data collection, management, and reporting system that will include data from selected wells in existing federal, state, tribal, and local groundwater monitoring networks. The network is envisioned as a long-term collaborative partnership among federal and non-federal data providers that will help address present and future groundwater management questions facing the nation. The NGWMN will provide the data needed to determine regional and national trends in groundwater levels and groundwater quality and facilitate the evaluation of transboundary groundwater resources.

Cooperative agreements will provide support for both new and existing data providers in the NGWMN. The USGS will fund new data providers to select and classify sites within existing monitoring programs, to set up web services that will link the data to the NGWMN portal and to produce a report describing this process. Existing data providers will receive funds to maintain web services and keep site information current. Existing data providers may also receive funding to collect new data to improve site information, to maintain wells and to drill new or replacement network wells. The maximum allowable funds for any data-provider agency is $150,000 per year.

Interested agencies may apply online at grants.gov under funding opportunity number G20AS00009. More information about the cooperative agreements is available on the NGWMN cooperative agreements page. Applications will be accepted from Sept. 30, 2019, through Jan. 17, 2020. 

Three webinars will be held to answer questions about the program announcement. These are scheduled for Oct. 9 at 1 p.m. EDT, Nov. 7 at 1 p.m. EDT, and Dec. 11 at 3 p.m. EST. The Oct. 9 and Nov. 7 webinars will be tailored for new applicants and will provide more details on the background of the NGWMN. They will also include a discussion of the required proposal and a presentation on “What makes a good proposal?” The Dec. 11 webinar will be tailored toward agencies already participating in the NGWMN. It will provide a brief background on the network and feature the presentation on ‘‘What makes a good proposal?” but will focus on changes made to the program announcement this year. All applicants are strongly encouraged to attend one of the webinars. You can access the webinars at: https://gstalk.usgs.gov/97278963. Audio for the webinars is available by calling (855)547-8255 and using the collaboration code 97278963.