Cooperative Agreement for Affiliated Partner with the Rocky Mountain Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU)

The U.S. Geological Survey is offering a cooperative agreement funding opportunity to support research in processing and analyzing data from the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission. The selected partner will collaborate with federal scientists to extract water surface elevations from pixel cloud data and automate the publication of water surface elevation data for all resolvable waterbodies across the United States. This research aims to expand the water resource monitoring network from a few thousand discrete locations to over one million locations while utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities. Eligible applicants must be participating partners of the Rocky Mountain Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit Program. Applications must be submitted electronically by August 29, 2026, for this single-award opportunity with an estimated total program funding of $300,000, and inquiries can be directed to Katie Calder at katherine_calder@ios.doi.gov.