Call 5: Flood Ready Research and Data Publication

Call Now Closed!

Overview

Proposal Q&A Session

Learn more about this funding opportunity by watching the recorded Q&A session here.

The Natural Hazards Center is pleased to announce a call for Flood Ready Research and Data Publication proposals in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences related to inland flooding.

Inland flood research is limited, so when extreme events—such as riverine flooding, flash flooding, and urban flooding—threaten communities, it is paramount that researchers collect and share perishable data with decision-makers. Such information can improve operational forecasts and warnings, minimize property damage, reduce injuries and deaths, and ultimately contribute to the collective good.

The goal of this funding call is to advance science through research focused on how diverse community members:

Perceive inland flood risks,
Prepare for inland flood threats,
Understand inland flood observations and forecasts,
Receive inland flood alerts and warnings,
Make protective action decisions, and
Respond to and recover from the impacts of an inland flood event.

This call, which is part of the Weather Ready Research Award Program, was made possible with the support of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Program Office in partnership with the National Weather Service and the National Science Foundation.

NOAA is the primary authority for issuing official weather forecasts and warnings for life threatening hazards in the United States. The agency is taking major steps towards building a Weather Ready Nation.

Funding Tracks

As indicated, this call is exclusively seeking proposals related to inland floods, due to the limited amount of research conducted in this area. Proposals related to coastal floods and storm surge will not be considered. Proposals can focus on collecting new data and/or analyzing existing flood datasets, which can be found in several data repositories, such as DesignSafe, ICPSR, and Harvard Dataverse.

Applicants can apply for one or more of the following three tracks:

Track 1: Provides $2,500 to $10,000 for research on activities that take place before inland flooding, such as inland flood forecasting, gauging risk perception, preparedness, and mitigation.
Track 2: Provides $2,500 to $10,000 for individual researchers or teams to study inland flood activities (e.g., weather alerts and warnings, evacuation decision-making and behavior, inland flood impacts, displacement, rebuilding, recovery) during and after flooding. For this track, the flood event to be studied must have occurred on or after December 1, 2022.
Track 3: Provides awards of either $1,250 or $2,500 for inland flood research instrument and data publication on DesignSafe, the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure platform that provides data management and storage solutions for extreme event research. The $1,250 awards will support publication of one or more research protocols, instruments—such as surveys, interviews, or focus group guides—or observation protocols from a single project that is focused on inland flood-related research. The $2,500 awards will be reserved for those who publish a dataset and associated instruments and protocols for a single inland flood-related project in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences.

All proposals, regardless of the track or the funding range, must be led by a researcher in the social, behavioral, or economic sciences who works at an academic institution based in a U.S. state, territory, or tribal nation. Practitioners or additional research collaborators from other disciplines and outside the U.S. are welcome to join research teams. All applicants are strongly encouraged to propose inland flood research that is culturally relevant, ethically informed, and scientifically rigorous.

Proposals are due by 5:00 p.m. MT on Monday, March 11, 2024

Award Details in Brief

All prospective applicants are encouraged to attend the Proposal Q&A Session on Tuesday, February 6, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. MT. This session will provide more information on this call.
Please review the submission guidelines for the three tracks of research activities that will be funded.
Proposals for Track 1 and 2 should be 5 single-spaced pages and must include a separate appendix with a reference list, budget, and budget justification submitted through an online form. Final reports are due Final reports are due on September 16, 2024.
- Available funds will support Track 1 or Track 2 awards in the amount of $2,500 to $10,000 each.
Proposals for Track 3 require the completion of a data or instrument publication form only. Data Publication Checklist and Data Publication Template are due on June 14, 2024.
- Available funds will support Track 3 awards in the amount of $1,250 or $2,500 each.
Applicants can apply for more than one track of activity, but a separate proposal should be submitted for each track.
Proposals for all tracks are due by 5:00 p.m. MT on Monday, March 11, 2024.

Topic Areas

We welcome proposals on a variety of inland flood-related topics. These can include, but are not limited to, studies that accomplish any of the goals listed below.

Methodologies for Data Collection

Develop and test methodologies for systematically collecting data on diverse end users, such as emergency managers, operational forecasters, broadcast meteorologists, water resource partners (dam operators, flood planners, etc.), or other weather and water decision-makers. Of particular interest are projects that assess the challenges that these professionals face in perceiving, communicating, collaborating, and making decisions about localized inland flood information.
Develop and test methodologies to measure how the public receives, interprets, perceives, and responds to inland flood information, particularly in the context of protective action decision-making.
Develop and test methodologies to measure how the public plans for, adapts to, mitigates, and recovers from inland flooding events.
Identify, develop, and test methodologies to measure the effectiveness of impact-based decision support services that cover inland flood forecast information, technology, and tools.

Public Perception, Social Vulnerability, and Societal Impacts

Increase understanding of how diverse members of the public perceive inland flood risk when two or more types of uncertainty exist, such as in concurrent or cascading hazards. This may include uncertainty between variables, such as temporal versus spatial uncertainty of an inland flood.
Assess the needs, vulnerabilities, and challenges of historically underserved, economically marginalized, or socially vulnerable communities in relation to inland floods and flood risk.
Assess the societal impacts of an inland flooding event through the lens of combined interdisciplinary published datasets or dynamic datasets, such as traffic, mobility, insurance, or financial data.

Community Resilience and Preparedness

Build community resilience to inland flooding through educational outreach and awareness campaigns.
Examine strategies to ensure communities have access to information and tools to effectively plan for, respond to, and recover from inland flood events.

Economic Valuation

Conduct economic valuation studies to estimate the benefits of inland flood warning improvements.
Evaluate the potential economic advantages that historically underserved, or socially vulnerable communities can achieve when service equity gaps are reduced.

Proposal Requirements and Post-Award Deliverables

Please click on the links below to review detailed guidelines about proposal requirements and post-award deliverables, and learn how to submit a proposal for each track.

Funding Agreement

Award recipients must carefully read and agree to the following funding criteria:

The lead investigator, as designated in the proposal, must be from an academic institution based in a U.S. state, territory, or tribal nation. Other co-leads, project assistants, or local collaborators do not have to be affiliated with a university or located in a U.S. state, territory, or tribal nation—these individuals cannot, however, serve as the project lead and primary award recipient.
The lead investigator must have training and experience in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. Collaborators from other disciplines are welcome.
Award payments can be distributed across team members as designated by the lead investigator (for example, 50% of the award sent to the lead, 25% to the co-lead, and 25% to a local collaborator). No more than three recipients can be designated for any one award, regardless of track.
Payments will be sent directly to the award recipients as designated in the budget to cover project-related expenses or time dedicated to data collection, analysis efforts, or the dissemination of results.
This award funding can NOT be sent directly to a university or other institutions, and there are no overhead or indirect costs associated with these funds.
Expenses may need to be paid out of pocket if fieldwork is involved and begins prior to receiving payment. Due dates will not be extended due to delays in payment processing.
Per tax compliance requirements, the University of Colorado Boulder will report payments to taxing jurisdictions when required. Individual payees will be issued any applicable tax forms directly from the University. Payees are responsible for any and all tax consequences related to payments they have received.
Individual recipients of these awards will be solely responsible for all tax reporting and ramifications. The Natural Hazards Center cannot provide tax advice. Awardees are allowed to include estimated taxes in their budget justification.
If you or one of your team members are a University of Colorado employee, please reach out to Katie Murphy at Katherine.Murphy-1@Colorado.edu prior to submitting a proposal, as the funding distribution has different requirements, including additional fringe and payroll tax considerations.
For award recipients who are non-U.S. citizens, the payment process may take longer and will require additional paperwork. All payments made to visa holders are submitted through the International Tax Office at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Once the award has been activated and the award agreement, tax forms, and IRB approval have been submitted to the Natural Hazards Center, researchers may begin fieldwork.

Questions?

Please contact the Natural Hazards Center at haz.research.awards@colorado.edu.

Acknowledgements

The Weather Ready Research Award program is based on work supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Program Office through supplemental funding to the National Science Foundation (NSF Award #1635593). Opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations produced by this program are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of NOAA, NSF, or the Natural Hazards Center.