104g Program

USGS Water Resources Requests for Proposals Announced 

The Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI) facilitates three Request for Proposals through the Water Resources Research Act Program Competitive Grants Program by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the National Institutes for Water Resources. 

The FY2024 Request for Proposals is closed. The FY2025 RFPs will be released soon with a short turnaround time. To prepare for the FY2025 RFP cycle, see the programs and links below from FY2024 to get familiar with these opportunities, though some information and requirements may change between last year and this year.

If you plan to submit, please complete this notice of intent form by August 15, 2025, so we know how many proposals to anticipate. Please also see the specific notes further down on this page regarding processes for those within and outside of Texas A&M University.

The three programs for FY2024 are below.

• National Competitive Grants Program (also known as 104g), focusing on improving and enhancing the nation’s water supply and availability as well as exploration of new ideas that address or expand understanding of water problems with research priorities including national-scale evaluation of water budgets, socioeconomics and model advancement.
• Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) Competitive Grants Program, focusing on better identifying and understanding aquatic invasive species interactions on water quality, water quantity and aquatic ecosystems to guide management decisions to help improve invasive species management with specific research priorities on the effects, characteristics and management of aquatic invasive species in the Mississippi River Basin with research priorities including effects, characteristics and management.
• Per-And Polyflouroalkyl (PFAS) Substances Competitive Grants Program, focusing on better understanding PFAS interactions on water resources and the effects it has on water quality and resultant exposure to humans, other organisms and ecosystems to guide management decisions improving water resources at the regional or national scale with research priorities including media-specific methods, atmospheric sources and processes oriented at the molecular level.

Proposals must address the research priorities for each program as listed in their respective RFPs (click the links in the bulleted section above for RFP PDFs). Any investigator at an institution of higher learning is eligible to apply. Projects will only be awarded if funds are appropriated to the USGS to support the program. 

For each program, proposals may be for projects of 1 to 3 years in duration and require a 1:1 match. Maximum award amounts are $310,000 for 104g and PFAS and $348,000 for AIS.

NEW for FY2025: USGS has informed us that PIs and Co-PIs/Is must submit a Biographical Sketch and Current & Pending. Fillable templates forthcoming once the RFP is released, but it is fine to use the format from one of the other agencies that have fillable forms, such as NSF or the SciENcv format, as long as it agrees with OMB Number 3145-0279.

Per the guidelines, all applications to any of these programs must be submitted through the Texas Water Resources Institute. Remember to complete this notice of intent form by August 15, 2025, so we know how many proposals to anticipate. The FY2025 full proposal submission deadline to TWRI will be announced once the official RFPs are released. The TWRI deadline is prior to USGS’ deadline so we can compile the information for each proposal, route internally for approval and upload to grants.gov to submit to USGS.

Only proposals submitted to TWRI will be transmitted to the National Grants Competition Proposal Peer Review Panel. 

NOTE for TAMU (on-campus), TEES and AgriLife PIs/Co-PIs: For those submitting proposals within Texas A&M University, considered “on-campus,” Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, etc., do not route your proposal through Sponsored Research Services (SRS). You can work with your proposal administrator on budgeting appropriately in the SRS template, but all proposals submitted to TWRI must be routed (separately) with TWRI as the lead, the proposal PI will be listed as a Co-PI, and the proposal package will route accordingly for approvals through maestro prior to us submitting the packages to USGS. Hence the earlier deadline.

EXTERNAL/SUBAWARDS to Texas A&M AgriLife: If you will be a subaward to AgriLife Research, please work with your university’s sponsored program office to ensure routing/approvals are obtained prior to submission to TWRI. In addition, we will need a completed, signed subaward commitment form from your organization along with your submission package unless your organization is part of the FDP, then provide the link to that information instead.

The Focus Categories are the same for each opportunity. Additional information about research priorities, proposal content, format and review process are available in the RFPs. Please also see the example for including USGS involvement.  

Questions regarding these grant programs can be directed to Danielle Kalisek at Danielle.Kalisek@ag.tamu.edu.