CPO’s RISA Program Announces New FY22 Funding Opportunities

The RISA program builds relationships that help local decision makers and researchers collaborate on adapting to climate change. Through regionally-focused and interdisciplinary research and engagement teams, RISA expands the Nation’s capacity to adapt and become resilient to extreme weather events and climate change. RISA teams accomplish this through applied and co-developed research and partnerships with communities. A central tenet of the RISA program is that learning about climate adaptation and resilience is facilitated by and sustained across a wide range of experts, practitioners, and the public. As such, the RISA program supports a network of people, prioritizing wide participation in learning by doing, learning through adapting, and managing risk with uncertain information.

The RISA program is holding four competitions (competition 4 in partnership with the Adaptation Science Program [AdSci]) under this Federal Funding Opportunity:

1. RISA teams for the following regions currently covered by the RISA program: West & Southwest;
2. RISA teams for the following regions new to the RISA program: U.S. Caribbean and Central Midwest;
3. Collaborative Planning Activities in the Upper Northeast and Appalachia;
4. Research on Complex Fiscal Pathways for Climate Adaptation in Rural Areas Across the U.S.

This information, along with the names and contact information for each Competition Manager, is provided in the information sheets below.

In FY22, approximately $5.86 million will be available for approximately 16 new awards pending budget appropriations. It is anticipated that awards in competitions 1-2 will be funded at $1,000,000 per year for a total of $5,000,000 over five years plus an additional $180,000 small-grants component for some awards. It is anticipated that competition 3 awards will be funded at $100,000 and competition 4 awards at $150,000. Federal funding for FY 2023 may be used to fund awards submitted under this Notice of Funding Opportunity. Current or previous grantees are eligible to apply for a new award that builds on, but does not replicate, activities covered in existing or previous awards. Current grantees should not apply for supplementary funding through this announcement.

CPO’s grant programs manage a competitive process through a NOFO announcement to make awards supporting high-quality research conducted across the United States and internationally on the most urgent climate science questions. While each program area has its own focus, together they advance understanding of Earth’s climate system through interdisciplinary, integrated scientific research, and leverage the resulting knowledge, data, and systems to enhance society’s ability to plan and respond to climate variability and climate change. Toward this end, CPO also supports partnerships that build end-to-end pipelines of information (e.g., integrated information systems) flowing from scientists to decision-makers.