USGS 104b Program
Annual Base Grants
Under the provisions of section 104 of the Water Resources Research Act of 1984, annual base grants (104b) are awarded to the Institutes or Centers that have been established in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam. The annual base grants help each Institute or Center to plan and conduct applied and peer-reviewed research on water resource issues specific to their state or territory.
The Connecticut Institute of Water Resources (CTIWR) uses the Base Grant to primarily fund freshwater-related research and information transfer projects by investigators from Connecticut universities and colleges on problems of importance to Connecticut and the Northeast Region. The CTIWR uses a pre-proposal and invited full proposal process to select research projects for funding.
For FY25, the Connecticut Institute of Water Resources highly encourages proposals from principal investigators who are from underrepresented or underserved groups in STEM, and from institutions that serve majority minority populations (e.g., Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Minority Serving Institutions, Tribal Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and community colleges). Additionally, proposals are encouraged that increase diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, which intersect with water research and resources. Proposals that address issues in historically marginalized or underserved communities are highly encouraged.
The general schedule is as follows:
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- Call for pre-proposals announced (early November).
- Pre-proposals due to CTIWR (due November 26, 2024). A streamlined preproposal process will be used, where PIs will email the Director a 1-2 page abstract with total funding request noted (see instructions below).
- Full proposal invitations announced (Mid December).
- Invited full proposals due (January 27, 2025).
- Full proposals sent out for external technical reviews (February 2025).
- Full proposals evaluated and selected for funding during the CTIWR Advisory Board meeting (March 2025).
- Proposals approved for funding announced (March 2025).
- Final proposal package submitted to the USGS by CTIWR (May 2025).
- Projects begin (September 1, 2025)
Funding
- Total funds made available for individual projects through the 104B Program vary from year to year. We expect to have approximately $100,000 to fund projects this year. We request a cap of $30,000 of federal funds per project. One-year projects are preferred. Two-year projects are acceptable, however, second-year funding is not guaranteed. Any projects requiring two years must be proposed as two separate one-year projects (the first year submitted now (FY 2025) and the second year submitted next year for FY 2026).
- Federal funds must be matched at least 1:1 with non-federal dollars (every $1 federal funds requested must be matched with $1 from non-federal funds).
Eligibility
- Principal Investigator must be at an accredited institution of higher learning in Connecticut to apply.
- All PIs must submit their pre-proposal to the Connecticut Institute of Water Resources (CTIWR) Director (Michael.Dietz@uconn.edu) and Associate director (Bo.Tao@uconn.edu) via email, with the subject line “FY25 CTIWR 104b Proposal”.