Design and Deployment of Engineering With Nature® (EWN) Solutions for Western Resilience | W81EWF 21 SOI 0016

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81EWF 21 SOI 0016

Design and Deployment of Engineering With Nature (EWN) Solutions for Western Resilience (Funding Opportunity Number W81EWF 21 SOI 0016) is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) cooperative agreement opportunity focused on building practical, decision-ready science that helps the western United States become more resilient to water scarcity, flooding, and related landscape stresses. Structured as a CESU-funded effort, the project is envisioned as a multi-year collaboration where the first year sets up the program foundation and launches initial research and engagement activities, while optional years two and three would scale the work into a broader, more diverse portfolio of EWN research, applied demonstrations, and outreach. The opportunity sits in the science and technology and other research and development category (CFDA 12.630), offers an award ceiling of $1,500,000, and anticipates a single award.

The central purpose is to strengthen the design and real-world deployment of EWN solutions, which broadly means combining engineering objectives with natural processes and nature-based features so infrastructure projects deliver traditional performance (like flood risk reduction or water supply reliability) while also producing environmental and social co-benefits. The program is explicitly oriented toward usable outputs: models, decision analyses, scalable methods, and communication products that can move beyond academic results into tools and practices that USACE and partners can apply.

The first required objective is the development of decision-ready models that advance EWN and accelerate the deployment and use of natural infrastructure. This objective prioritizes building a suite of collaborative research and development projects that expand the existing EWN portfolio, with a strong emphasis on analytical approaches that can inform investment and operational choices. Example work includes developing models and decision analyses that quantify costs and benefits of natural infrastructure for balancing water supplies and improving flood control. The opportunity encourages research aimed at increasing storage and flood protection by leveraging natural systems and working lands, including wetlands and riparian areas, overdrawn aquifers (where recharge and storage strategies matter), and farmlands and forests across both public and private ownership. The solicitation signals a preference for multidisciplinary teams that can integrate methods and data into clearly defined, deliberate endpoints, such as transferable modeling frameworks, validated tools, or defensible benefit-cost approaches. In year one, USACE researchers and the selected team are expected to initiate roughly three to five EWN research and development projects, with an eye toward generating technology transfer opportunities later (meaning results that can be adopted by practitioners, incorporated into guidance, or adapted for project planning).

The second objective centers on identifying and proposing EWN techniques and natural infrastructure approaches that improve land use and water management, particularly in the high-demand context of the U.S. Southwest. The emphasis here is basin-scale thinking: looking across watersheds and land-use types to find where nature-based strategies can conserve water, support more equitable distribution, and improve water quality. This objective explicitly connects land management decisions (and associated practices) to water outcomes, encouraging innovative approaches that deliver environmental benefits alongside social value. A key element is cost-effectiveness and distributional impact: research should identify natural infrastructure options that are financially realistic and analyze how those solutions could be deployed in ways that deliver value to historically under-represented communities, rather than concentrating benefits only where capacity and resources are already strong. This objective also stresses expanding collaboration beyond the core award team and USACE EWN researchers by bringing in additional partners and perspectives. In the first year, the program expects about two to three projects to be identified and actively pursued under this objective.

The third objective is to launch and operate an EWN communication platform designed to improve public communication and accelerate information sharing across the EWN network. This is not treated as a minor add-on; the solicitation spells out tangible output expectations and positions communication as a core deliverable that helps translate research into practice. The platform is meant to enable timely delivery of informational products and engagement activities, using proven dissemination methods from the collaborating organizations while aligning with EWN strategic outcomes and public benefit goals. Example deliverables include workshops, symposia, news articles, videos or documentaries, graphics, case study reporting, technical notes, and peer-reviewed journal articles. In year one alone, the selected team is expected to produce at least two workshops or symposia, one video, two to three technical notes, and two journal articles, in close coordination with EWN leadership and researchers. These products are also intended to generate broader educational and outreach opportunities, effectively building a pipeline from research results to practitioner uptake and public understanding.

Across all objectives, the opportunity describes an ideal investigator team as broad and deeply technical, spanning hydrology and hydraulics, flood mitigation, water supply planning, reservoir operations, multi-objective optimization, watershed and sediment transport modeling, decision support tools, and forest fire and forest management. It also highlights experience that directly aligns with EWN implementation, such as developing and designing nature-based strategies and best management practices, addressing erosion and reservoir infilling, modeling restoration projects, incorporating human-use benefits into infrastructure planning, quantifying benefits from restoration, and modeling riverine and reservoir systems. Taken together, the grant is aimed at teams that can do rigorous applied research, translate it into actionable tools and guidance, and actively communicate results so EWN methods can be adopted more widely to strengthen western water and flood resilience.

• The Department of Defense, Dept. of the Army -- Corps of Engineers in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Design and Deployment of Engineering With Nature® (EWN) Solutions for Western Resilience" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.630.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 17, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 18, 2021. (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 $1,500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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