Fish and Wildlife Coordination and Assistance Programs | F19AS00214

Opportunity Information: Apply for F19AS00214

The Fish and Wildlife Coordination and Assistance Programs grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number F19AS00214) is a discretionary federal grant offered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service. It sits in the broad program area of environment, natural resources, and science and technology research and development (CFDA 15.664). The specific project described under this opportunity focuses on a highly applied research question tied to conservation culture and recovery support for delta smelt, a species of major concern in California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

At its core, the proposed work is about evaluating whether "wakasagi hatching frames" can be used as an effective tool for delta smelt egg incubation and hatching under controlled conditions. The larger conservation idea behind the work is that, if these frames prove reliable in the lab, they could become a practical method to support future releases into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, with the goal of supplementing the wild population. In other words, the grant supports early-stage testing of a propagation or culture technique that might later be scaled or adapted for field use as part of broader recovery and population support strategies.

The opportunity lays out two clear technical objectives. First, it aims to measure basic performance outcomes when fertilized delta smelt eggs are placed on wakasagi hatching frames and reared under laboratory culture practices used at the FCCL. That includes assessing how many eggs successfully hatch and how well the larvae survive afterward, which are the most direct indicators of whether the method is biologically workable. Second, it seeks to test how these hatching frames perform when environmental conditions are varied at the FCCL. This is essentially a robustness check: even if a method works under one set of ideal lab parameters, managers need to know whether it remains effective when conditions shift, since real-world environments and operational settings can rarely be held constant.

From an administrative standpoint, the grant was published on July 15, 2019, with an original closing date of August 12, 2019. The award ceiling listed is $99,997, placing it in the category of a smaller, targeted research award meant to answer a specific management-relevant question rather than fund a large multi-year program. The eligible applicants are limited to public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, which signals that the funding is intended to be carried out by universities or similar public academic institutions with the staff, facilities, and compliance infrastructure to conduct fish culture research. The listing shows expected awards as 0, which in many postings can indicate that the notice is a specific project solicitation or that the anticipated number of awards was not firmly set in the public synopsis.

The legal authority for the work is rooted in several cornerstone fish and wildlife conservation statutes: the Fish and Wildlife Act, the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, the Fish and Wildlife Improvement Act, and the Endangered Species Act. Taken together, those laws provide the Fish and Wildlife Service a mandate to conserve fish and wildlife resources, coordinate conservation considerations with water and land management activities, improve fish and wildlife conservation capacity, and support actions that benefit species protected under the ESA. In practical terms, the legislative basis aligns with the project goals because delta smelt conservation involves both research and applied management tools that can support recovery planning, propagation strategies, and coordination in ecosystems heavily influenced by water operations and habitat change.

Overall, this opportunity is a narrowly scoped, conservation-oriented research grant aimed at testing a specific incubation and seeding technology for delta smelt eggs under laboratory conditions. The expected outcome is evidence that helps determine whether wakasagi hatching frames are a viable technique, what survival and hatch rates can be achieved, and how sensitive the approach is to environmental variation, all of which informs whether the method could be used later to support supplementation or recovery actions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

• The Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service in the environment, natural resources, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Fish and Wildlife Coordination and Assistance Programs" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.664.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jul 15, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 12, 2019. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $99,997.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education.

Apply for F19AS00214

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