Southwest CASC base funding amount: $7,400,000

Cost Sharing: No

Project period: Up to 4 years

This Announcement seeks to identify applicant organizations
that propose to host and, as applicable, serve as consortium partners for a
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Climate Adaptation Science Center (CASC) in the
North Central and Southwest.

The goal of each CASC is to work with regional managers of
land, water, fish and wildlife, as well as nearshore, coastal, and cultural
heritage resources in order to identify high priority resource management and
decision needs for which information on climate change, impacts, and adaptation
is needed.

CASCs are based at organizations (hereafter termed Hosts
or Host Institutions) that provide suitable facilities, partnerships, science,
capacity building, communications, and programmatic capabilities, either alone
or in combination with other partners (“consortium partners”). At the national
level, USGS (through the National CASC) provides executive staffing and
administrative support, conducts a program to link and synthesize CASC research
activities, and provides communication data management, and information
technology strategy coordination.

The primary functions of CASCs – including the Host
institutions and the federal component together – are to:

a. Identify priority management needs through ongoing
interactions with resource management entities within the region and identify
scientific information and tools that may inform these management challenges.

b. Identify impacts of climate change and current
management strategies on priority species, habitats/ecosystems, ecosystem goods
and services, and other natural and cultural resources within the region, as
guided by the management priorities identified above.

c. Translate, integrate, aggregate, and synthesize
existing or new scientific information to meet key information needs identified
in conjunction with natural and cultural resource managers.

d. Work with partners to identify, evaluate, and provide
science to design, implement, and evaluate adaptation strategies to address
identified climate impacts (along with other stressors such as land use or land
cover change) on priority resources.

e. Provide student researchers or post-doctoral
researchers at each CASC experiences that help them understand high-priority
resource management challenges, the management objectives of key stakeholders,
how science can provide information about the impacts of potential policies on
these management challenges and objectives, and how to interface with a broad
variety of community and resource related groups.

f. Foster development and use of research products by
conducting capacity-building activities.

g. Provide science translation, leading communities of
practice, holding scientific workshops and forums, and developing scientific
outreach materials for or with resource managers and relevant partners in the
region.

h. Provide information management capacity and
infrastructure for the Center’s research activities.