Cooperative Agreement for affiliated Partner with the Great Lakes-Northern Forest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit | G26AS00123

Grant Opportunity FAQs (USGS Cooperative Agreement - AUV Water Quality Mapping)

1) What is this grant opportunity about?

This is a US Geological Survey (USGS) cooperative agreement focused on improving how water quality agencies detect, track, and map short-lived but serious water quality problems. The project specifically targets episodic events that can develop quickly, spread widely, and change hour to hour, making them difficult to monitor with traditional fixed stations and routine field visits.

2) What kinds of water quality problems are considered "episodic events" in this opportunity?

The opportunity highlights episodic events such as storm-driven river plumes and seasonal cyanobacteria blooms. These events can degrade water quality rapidly, shift location fast, and may not be obvious through simple visual inspection.

3) Why are episodic water quality events challenging for traditional monitoring networks?

Traditional monitoring networks can struggle because episodic events can be spatially widespread, can change rapidly (including hour-to-hour variability), and may not be captured well by fixed sampling stations or periodic field visits. If an event moves or intensifies between scheduled sampling times, a routine approach can miss the most important conditions.

4) What is the main technology being evaluated in this project?

The project centers on evaluating a lower-cost autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) platform called the JaiaBot BIO. The intent is to test whether commercially available and relatively affordable AUVs, equipped with in-situ water quality sensors, can support near real-time mapping of the distribution and severity of water quality degradation during episodic events.

5) Why is USGS interested in a "lower-cost" AUV platform?

AUVs have been used in oceanography for mapping physical and biogeochemical conditions, but their cost has historically limited routine use for local and regional water quality management. This effort is aimed at determining whether more affordable AUV options can realistically fit management needs while still producing useful, actionable information during fast-changing events.

6) What does "near real-time characterization" mean in the context of this project?

Within the scope described, it means producing timely information about where water quality is degrading and how severe the degradation is while an episodic event is unfolding, rather than only reconstructing conditions after the fact. The goal is management-relevant, event-time spatial information.

7) What is the overall objective of the proposed work?

The overall objective is operational readiness: evaluating how well the AUV-and-sensor approach performs in real field conditions for quantifying the distribution and severity of water quality compromise events in near real time. The focus is not only whether the technology works in principle, but whether it can be deployed effectively and repeatedly in a way that produces actionable spatial information for resource managers and the public.

8) Where will the primary testing take place?

Lake Champlain is identified as the primary test bed for this work.

9) Why was Lake Champlain selected as the primary test bed?

Lake Champlain offers a mix of real-world challenges and existing monitoring assets. It has a high watershed-to-lake area/volume ratio, making it sensitive to runoff-driven disturbances and high-flow events. It also has long-term and high-frequency stationary monitoring infrastructure in the lake and tributaries, enabling comparisons between mobile AUV surveys and established records and continuous sensor sites. Additionally, the lake includes eutrophic bays with well-studied cyanobacteria blooms that can vary dramatically across space and time.

10) How do cyanobacteria blooms factor into this project?

Seasonal cyanobacteria blooms are one of the key episodic events of interest. The opportunity notes that these blooms can vary significantly across space and time and are influenced in part by bottom-water hypoxia that is transient and patchy, making them a demanding test case for an AUV trying to capture complex, fast-changing conditions.

11) What is the JaiaBot BIO expected to do during episodic events?

Based on the description, the AUVs are expected to conduct mobile surveys using in-situ water quality sensors to map where water quality is compromised and how severe the compromise is, with an emphasis on supporting near real-time understanding during events like storm-driven plumes and cyanobacteria blooms.

12) How many AUV units will be supported by the award?

The award will support the purchase and use of four (4) JaiaBot BIO autonomous underwater vehicles during the project period.

13) What happens to the AUV units at the end of the project?

The four JaiaBot BIO units will be vested to the recipient at the conclusion of the project.

14) How long is the period of performance?

The period of performance is 24 months from receipt of funds. This timeframe is intended to allow for setup, field deployments across relevant seasons and event types, data analysis, and evaluation of operational performance.

15) What type of funding instrument is being used?

This is a discretionary financial assistance opportunity issued as a Cooperative Agreement.

16) What program is this cooperative agreement issued under?

The opportunity is issued under the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU) Program, which is designed to facilitate research, technical assistance, and education partnerships.

17) Who is eligible to apply?

Only eligible applicants that are participating partners of the Great Lakes-Northern Forest CESU may apply.

18) What is the Funding Opportunity Number?

The Funding Opportunity Number is G26AS00123.

19) What is the CFDA number listed for this opportunity?

The opportunity is listed under CFDA 15.808.

20) What is the maximum award amount (award ceiling)?

The award ceiling is $299,971.

21) How many awards does USGS expect to make?

The opportunity states an expectation of one award.

22) When was the opportunity posted?

The posting date is 2026-05-29.

23) What is the closing date for applications?

The original closing date is 2026-06-29.

24) What makes this project different from a simple technology demonstration?

The emphasis is on operational readiness in management-relevant conditions. That means assessing practical deployability and repeatability, and whether the approach can generate actionable spatial information during real episodic events, rather than only showing that an AUV can collect data under ideal or limited circumstances.

25) What kinds of comparisons or validation are implied by the opportunity?

The opportunity indicates that Lake Champlain has long-term and high-frequency stationary monitoring infrastructure in the lake and tributaries, which allows data from mobile AUV surveys to be compared against established records and continuous sensor sites.