Risk Analysis of Biotechnology for the Protection of Environmental Resources | W81EWF 24 SOI 0033

Opportunity Information: Apply for W81EWF 24 SOI 0033

The Department of the Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ERDC) is soliciting one cooperative agreement under the opportunity titled "Risk Analysis of Biotechnology for the Protection of Environmental Resources" (Funding Opportunity Number W81EWF 24 SOI 0033). The program focuses on how to manage the environmental risks and rewards of rapidly advancing biotechnology, especially as new tools and AI-accelerated research make it easier to develop and deploy novel biological approaches. The central aim is to strengthen risk management and stewardship systems so they remain adaptive and resilient, meaning they can keep pace with innovation while still protecting environmental quality and human health. The work is framed around environmental stewardship as a shared responsibility, emphasizing governance approaches that generate public value by enabling beneficial uses of biotechnology while reducing or preventing harmful outcomes.

The research is organized into three linked objectives that move from understanding todays landscape, to building practical ways to measure resilience, to forecasting how stewardship systems may perform under plausible future conditions. Objective 1 is a comparative analysis of existing and emerging risk management frameworks and stewardship practices that regulate environmental biotechnology. Building on prior ERDC work and collaboration with scientific and social science experts in the United States and NATO partner countries, this objective asks applicants to first identify relevant regulatory and stewardship approaches currently used for fast-emerging environmental biotechnology applications, then compare them to determine what features they share and where they differ. A key deliverable embedded in Objective 1 is the creation of application-specific scenarios. These scenarios are not just illustrative; they are meant to help pinpoint what should be measured in the next objective, so that later evaluations are grounded in realistic use cases rather than abstract principles.

Objective 2 addresses a recognized bottleneck: the inability of existing governance and stewardship practices to keep up with biotechnology modernization, particularly when AI accelerates research, development, and iteration cycles. ERDC notes that few objective, comparable metrics currently exist to evaluate biotechnology risk management capacity across systems, which makes it difficult to understand whether different approaches are aligned, where they diverge, and how well they handle pathogenic risk, environmental risk, and biodiversity risk. Under this objective, the project would define key capacity or resilience metrics tied to risk management and stewardship practices, collect data on those metrics across the systems identified in Objective 1, and then assess the quality of the resulting dataset. In practical terms, this is about turning broad ideas like preparedness, responsiveness, oversight capability, coordination strength, and community partnership effectiveness into measurable indicators that can be compared across frameworks.

Objective 3 uses the groundwork from Objectives 1 and 2 to look forward. It is essentially a forecasting and stress-testing effort that examines how environmental stewardship relationships may evolve as biotechnology continues to modernize. The project would conduct network analysis to map inter-relationships among risk management components, then develop scenarios that explore how specific technology developments could change risk management and stewardship performance depending on whether certain components are present, absent, strong, weak, or overloaded. The capacity metrics created in Objective 2 are then used to evaluate how stewardship is likely to hold up under these different future conditions, with attention to expected outcomes for environmental protection and human health. The emphasis here is not on predicting a single future, but on characterizing multiple plausible futures and identifying which governance features most strongly influence safe and responsible outcomes.

The public benefit case for the program is straightforward: it seeks to improve how biotechnology is regulated and stewarded so that society can realize environmental gains (for example, improved remediation, monitoring, or ecosystem support applications) while limiting harms, misuse, or unintended consequences that could threaten ecosystems, biodiversity, or public health. By producing clearer comparisons across frameworks, establishing metrics that help decision-makers evaluate resilience, and developing scenario-based insights into how systems might perform under accelerating innovation, the work is intended to strengthen the practical ability of institutions and communities to manage biotechnology responsibly and at scale.

Administratively, this is a discretionary opportunity using a cooperative agreement, categorized under science and technology and other research and development (CFDA 12.630). The anticipated award is up to $100,000, with one expected award. The opportunity was created on 2024-07-08 and had an original closing date of 2024-08-28. Eligibility is limited: applicants must be non-federal partners of the Great Lakes-Northern Forest Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (CESU), meaning only organizations that qualify under that CESU partnership structure can apply.

• The Dept. of the Army -- Corps of Engineers in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Risk Analysis of Biotechnology for the Protection of Environmental Resources" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.630.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-07-08.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-08-28. (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 $100,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

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