Make Federal Water Data Available to States and the Public | P18AS00350

Opportunity Information: Apply for P18AS00350

The grant opportunity titled "Make Federal Water Data Available to States and the Public" (Funding Opportunity Number P18AS00350) is a National Park Service (NPS) notice announcing the intent to award financial assistance through a cooperative agreement. Rather than functioning as an open, competitive solicitation, the text reads like a public notice of an already identified award action. The announcement specifically points to an agreement under Cooperative Agreement number P17AC00971 with Colorado State University, and the description repeats that purpose: to provide public notice that financial assistance will be awarded under that existing agreement.

From the information provided, the awarding agency is the National Park Service and the assistance listing is associated with CFDA number 15.945. The opportunity category and activity category are both labeled "Other," which often indicates that the work does not fit neatly into standard grant program buckets or that the notice is being posted primarily for transparency and compliance purposes rather than to invite new proposals. The instrument type is a cooperative agreement, which typically implies substantial involvement by the federal agency during the project period, such as collaboration on technical direction, deliverables, data standards, or coordination with other federal and state partners.

The title suggests the underlying project goal is to improve access to federal water-related data for state governments and the general public. In practice, efforts described this way often include tasks like organizing, standardizing, or publishing datasets; improving data portals or APIs; documenting metadata and data provenance; and coordinating data sharing so that water information collected or managed at the federal level is easier for states to use in planning, management, compliance, research, or public communication. However, the posted description itself does not provide details on the scope of work, specific datasets involved, timeline, performance measures, or expected deliverables beyond the fact that the award is tied to Colorado State University under the referenced cooperative agreement number.

Key administrative details in the notice include an original closing date of 2018-06-30, a creation date of 2018-06-20, and an award ceiling listed as "1," with "ExpectedAwards" left blank. Those fields, combined with the wording, reinforce that this is not a typical open call with a defined budget cap and multiple anticipated awards, but a notice documenting a specific financial assistance action. The eligible applicants field is listed as "Others," yet the announcement clearly indicates the recipient is Colorado State University for this particular agreement, implying eligibility is not the main point of the posting.

Overall, the opportunity is best understood as a transparency notice: the National Park Service is publicly documenting that it will provide financial assistance through a cooperative agreement with Colorado State University, under CA #P17AC00971, for work framed around making federal water data more available and usable by states and the public. The notice does not include application instructions, competitive evaluation criteria, or a detailed project narrative, which is consistent with announcements that exist primarily to satisfy public posting requirements for an intended or finalized award.

• The National Park Service in the other sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Make Federal Water Data Available to States and the Public" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.945.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2018-06-20.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2018-06-30. (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 $1.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for P18AS00350

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