USGS Section 104(b) Water Research Funding Opportunity (closed)
Important Dates
Letter of Intent due: February 18, 2026, to Karen Turner at turnerk@missouri.edu
Pre-Proposal submission deadline: March 9, 2026
Award Information
Award amount: $25,000/Yr
Project period: September 1, 2026 – August 31, 2028
Duration: 2 years
Cost share: 1:1 federal/university match required
Note: the second-year funding is contingent upon funding availability, so please just prepare the budget for the first year.
The Missouri Water Center (MWC), University of Missouri, invites pre-proposals for funding by the Office of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Department of the Interior under Section 104b of the Water Resources Research Act of 1984, as Amended. The MWC operates the USGS Water Research Institute program for the state of Missouri. The federal research dollars administered through the Center under the USGS program are available to all universities in Missouri.
Please submit a letter of intent by February 18, 2026. The deadline for full pre-proposal submission is Monday, March 9, 2026. Each pre-proposal should be no more than 7 pages, in 12-point Time New Roman, excluding references, CVs, and budget/budget justification.
The award amount will be $25,000/yr.
Proposals should address one of the following research areas: Water Quantity, Water Quality (surface water and/or groundwater), and Water Policy-Planning-Adjudication in Missouri. In support of the overall research priority areas in MWC and in coordination with the other state water center programs in the Missouri River/Mississippi River basin, we particularly would like to receive proposals to explore the following topics:
- Research to better understand and mitigate the impact of harmful algal blooms (HABS), such as nutrient removal and HABs control technologies development.
- Development of innovative technologies for water and wastewater treatment including those associated with mining activities.
- Research that will improve the quality, durability, and equipment longevity for monitoring the quantity and quality of Missouri’s water resources.
- Hydraulics/hydrology model development. Examples include developing digital twins of river systems, modeling and virtualization of levee breaches, and AI-based modeling approaches.
Please Note: In order to give as much time for submission, we are using the same guidelines as used in the previous year for this RFP; any updates for this year will be provided when available. The plan is to fund each winning pre-proposal for 2 years at $25,000/year; however, the second-year funding is contingent upon funding availability, so please just prepare the budget for the first year. There is a 1:1 federal/university match required for this program.
The grant is expected to start on September 1, 2026.
Budget worksheets and research focus areas are included to assist with these requirements. All pre-proposals must be emailed to Karen Turner at turnerk@missouri.edu, not to USGS. A review panel will be organized by MWC to review pre-proposals; and three selected pre-proposals will be integrated into the 104(b) application package prepared by MWC for submission to USGS.
Important Reminder: Please reach out to your research administration/grant support team to complete the detailed budget. The University of Missouri does require the pre-proposal to be submitted through the university.
FOR QUESTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT:
Karen Turner, Program Coordinator at (573) 882-4638/turnerk@missouri.edu, or Dr. Baolin Deng, Director, at Dengb@missouri.edu .