Extreme heat in urban areas presents society with significant economic, health, safety, and security challenges. As part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) climate portfolio within the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), the Climate Program Office (CPO) addresses this and other climate challenges by managing competitive research programs through which high-priority climate science, assessments, decision support research, outreach, education, and capacitybuilding activities are funded to advance our understanding of the Earth’s climate system, and to foster the application and use of this knowledge to improve the resilience of our Nation and its partners.
Through this announcement, CPO is seeking applications for a single competition in FY21. This competition supports a high-priority climate risk area that CPO is organizing some of its activities around to improve science understanding and/or capabilities that result in user-driven outcomes. This risk area, focused on extreme heat, is one of four initial risk areas; the others are coastal inundation, marine ecosystems, and water resources. More information about CPO’s Climate Risk Areas Initiative can be found https://cpo.noaa.gov/News/ArtMID/7875/ArticleID/1945/NOAA%E2%80%99s-Clim....
In FY21, the Extreme Heat Risk Initiative is soliciting proposals for projects that support decision making in communities grappling with the health impacts of extreme heat by improving the climate information and services available to inform consideration, selection, and evaluation of actions, plans, programs, and policies to improve resilience to heat and mitigate health impacts in urban areas in the short- and long-term. Specifically, this competition seeks to expand on NOAA-supported urban heat mapping campaigns, combining the observations, modeling and outputs from them with new experimental methods and follow-on applied research.
This competition will be constrained to proposals that focus on communities involved in the NIHHIS-CAPA public-private partnership (see: nihhis.cpo.noaa.gov/Urban-Heat-IslandMapping/UHI-Campaigns/Campaign-Cities), and that leverage the openly available urban heat island data produced via the community science urban heat island field campaigns.
Deadlines:
Eligible applicants are institutions of higher education, other nonprofits, commercial organizations, international organizations, and state, local and Indian tribal governments. Federal agencies or institutions are not eligible to receive Federal assistance under this notice.
In FY21, approximately $500,000 will be available for approximately 5 new awards pending budget appropriations (see section I.B above). It is anticipated that most awards will be at a funding level between $50,000 and $150,000 per year. Federal funding for FY 2022 may be used to fund awards submitted under this Notice of Funding Opportunity. Current or previous grantees are eligible to apply for a new award that builds on, but does not replicate, activities covered in existing or previous awards. Current grantees should not apply for supplementary funding through this announcement.
Extreme Heat Risk Initiative - Depending on the availability of funds and the quality of proposals, the Extreme Heat Risk Initiative will seek to fund a combination of 1- and 2-year projects in FY 21. Proposals should not exceed $150,000 per year, or $300,000 total. It is anticipated that $500,000 will be available for the first year of funded projects.
