Climate variability and change present 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 these climate challenges by managing competitive research programs through which high-priority climate science, assessments, decision-support research, outreach, education, and capacity-building 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 three individual competitions in FY23. These competitions are relevant to one of the high-priority climate risk areas CPO is focusing on to improve science understanding and/or capabilities that result in userdriven outcomes: Extreme Heat. More information about CPO’s Climate Risk Areas Initiative can be found at https://cpo.noaa.gov/News/ArtMID/7875/ArticleID/1945/NOAA%E2%80%99s-ClimateProgram-Office-launches-Climate-Risk-Areas-Initiative.
Deadlines:
- Letter of Intent: Aug. 14, 2023
- Application: Oct. 16, 2023
This FY24 NOFO is being executed through the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS). NIHHIS is an integrated information system that was jointly developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The NIHHIS Program is run out of NOAA’s Climate Program Office. NIHHIS is guided by an interagency steering committee composed of representatives from many federal agencies. For more information about the program, visit Heat.gov.
In FY24, NIHHIS is offering funding opportunities under two competitions to expand development of actionable, place-based climate information for community heat resilience. These competitions will support the new NIHHIS Centers of Excellence. The two competitions covered by this announcement are as follows:
1. NIHHIS Center of Excellence - Center for Community Climate & Health Observations, Monitoring & Evaluation
2. NIHHIS Center of Excellence - Center for Climate and Health Assessments, Policy, and Practice
Eligible applicants are institutions of higher education, other nonprofits, commercial organizations, international organizations, and state, local and tribal governments. Federal agencies or institutions are not eligible to receive Federal assistance under this notice.
In FY24, it is expected that $2.0 million total will be available for approximately 2 new awards (see section I.B above). 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.
Depending on the availability of funds and the quality of proposals, funding under each of competitions 1 and 2 will take the form of a 3-year cooperative agreement with a funding floor of $1.0M in year 1 and $0.75M in years 2 and 3 for a total of $2.5M per center for the 3-year period. Proposals should be modular and scalable, completely achieving the requirements below and in the competition information sheet [https://cpo.noaa.gov/FundingOpportunities/NIHHIS-FY2024-IRA] at the stated funding floor. Applications may also indicate what could be achieved at funding levels as high as $3M per year ($9M per center for the 3-year period), but should focus primarily on capabilities at the funding floor level.