Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner Great Lakes – Northern Forest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit | G21AS00590

Opportunity Information: Apply for G21AS00590

This funding opportunity (G21AS00590) is a US Geological Survey (USGS) cooperative agreement aimed specifically at partners affiliated with the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) network, with eligibility limited to participating members of the Great Lakes - Northern Forest CESU. The project sits in the science and technology and research and development category (CFDA 15.808) and is structured as a collaborative effort rather than a traditional stand-alone grant, meaning the awardee is expected to work closely with USGS staff and potentially other engaged partners throughout the project. The overarching purpose is to strengthen USGS capabilities for critical minerals assessment by advancing text and data mining approaches that can convert large volumes of technical and government reporting into structured, analysis-ready information.

At the core of the effort is an initial pilot project that builds on existing methods for processing scientific and technical literature, then adapts and extends them for challenging, real-world document types used in minerals and geoscience work. A major focus is on mining NI 43-101 technical reports (a common format for mineral project disclosures) alongside other government reporting artifacts. The recipient is expected to develop a workable process to ingest both publicly available and proprietary technical reports from a USGS repository location into the university partner's research and development environment, integrating those documents into appropriate technical frameworks for computation and analysis. From there, the work emphasizes applying standard extraction algorithms to pull usable information not only from narrative text, but also from tables, figures, equations, and other embedded elements that often contain high-value technical data.

Another central objective is improving the ability of algorithms to detect the kinds of signals that matter for minerals assessment and geoscience interpretation. That includes identifying and extracting references to geospatial extent, locations and geographic features, geologic setting, and other context needed to understand mineral occurrences and resource potential. The opportunity explicitly calls for testing the efficacy of existing methods on these document classes, then conducting research and development to enhance current geoscience-specific data mining algorithms. Where existing tools fall short, the partner is expected to design and develop new geoscience-oriented algorithms capable of identifying key properties and variables used in minerals assessment and related practices. In practical terms, that can mean better recognition of domain terminology, geological units, deposit characteristics, coordinate systems, stratigraphy, measurement units, and relationships that are frequently expressed in semi-structured or inconsistent ways across reports.

A strong theme throughout the announcement is data provenance and traceability. The project is expected to improve methods and, where necessary, create new practices that preserve a clear provenance chain linking extracted, analysis-ready data back to the original source material and documenting all processing steps in between. This is important for scientific defensibility, reproducibility, and quality assurance, particularly when automated extraction is used to support public-facing assessments or decision-relevant analyses. The deliverables are intended to go beyond a one-off demonstration: the partner is expected to provide software, data outputs, and knowledge products resulting from the pilot that are robust enough to be leveraged for additional cases and expanded to other document types over time.

In terms of program structure and timing, this is a discretionary opportunity issued under the CESU mechanism, which is designed to foster partnerships that provide research, technical assistance, and education. The posting lists an award ceiling of $300,000, with the original closing date of September 14, 2021, and a creation date of July 26, 2021. Overall, the opportunity is geared toward an applied research partner that can combine natural language processing and document understanding with geoscience domain expertise, delivering practical tools and workflows that help USGS scale critical minerals intelligence from complex technical reporting.

• The Geological Survey in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner Great Lakes – Northern Forest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.808.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-07-26.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-09-14. (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 $300,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for G21AS00590

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