OpportunityTitle: Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Gulf Coast Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: This financial assistance opportunity is being issued under a Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program.&#160; CESU&#8217;s are partnerships that provide research, technical assistance, and education.&#160; Eligible recipients must be a participating partner of the Gulf Coast Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Program.&#160; &#160;
Description: The USGS Water Mission Area (WMA) Next Generation Water Observing System (NGWOS), is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research and development of technology for microplastic detection and identification. Microplastics, including microbeads, fragments, and fibers are defined as plastics smaller than 5 mm in size. Water pollution due to microplastics is a top emerging concern for ecological and human health. One of the challenges for microplastic data collection is that the analytical process is time-consuming (days to weeks), labor-intensive, costly (equipment plus labor), and baseline data are limited. A low-cost portable sensor that can be deployed at testing fields with multiple sensing modalities and edge computing capabilities for microplastic identification is of interest to NGWOS. A reliable and low-cost microplastic sensor would be beneficial to the WMA and the water monitoring community.
GrantorContactEmailDescription: fgraves@usgs.gov
GrantorContactText: FAITH GRAVES&lt;br/&gt;fgraves@usgs.gov
CloseDateExplanation: Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 5:00 p.m., ET, on the listed application due date.