The Restoration Research Award Program funds the answers to key restoration questions focused on the effectiveness of watershed restoration practices.
Donor Name: Chesapeake Bay Trust
State: Maryland
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 01/29/2026
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
The Pooled Monitoring Initiative pools resources to support scientists who answer key restoration questions posed by the regulatory and practitioner communities through this Restoration Research Request for Proposals (RFP). The research teams then provide the answers back to those who asked the questions for direct application. The goal of the Restoration Research award program is to answer these key restoration questions that serve as a barrier to watershed restoration project implementation. Funding partners hope that answering these questions will ultimately lead to increased confidence in proposed restoration project outcomes, clarification of the optimal site conditions in which to apply particular restoration techniques, how to bolster adoption using social science, information useful to regulatory agencies in project permitting, and information that will help guide monitoring programs.
The ability to pool funding allows for rigorous research to address these complex, important questions require robust experimental design carried out by qualified research teams. Finally, the RFP research questions are the result of the top key restoration questions identified for a particular year.
This program is funded by the Chesapeake Bay Trust (the Trust), the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program Office, Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Charles County, Frederick County, Harford County, Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, and the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration.
Project Types
Members of the regulatory and restoration communities have worked together to identify several key restoration questions that are challenging watershed restoration work in the Chesapeake. Investigators may request funds to undertake the following activities pertaining to any of these questions:
- Conduct a literature review/synthesis, if the case can be made that enough is already known about a question ($50,000 maximum request);
- Answer a component of the question with a research project in which specific hypotheses are tested. Research projects may include:
- experimental or descriptive work in the field;
- experimental work in the laboratory;
- modeling studies; and/or
- use of existing data, if deemed appropriately suited (properly collected with appropriate metadata); or
- Develop a regulatory or practitioner tool related to one or more of the questions that advances the pace or efficacy of the field in question, if the case can be made the tool is needed and you have ample information to support tool development.
Funding Information
Funding partners have allocated an estimated $1,988,000 for this research program. Of the available funding at least $688,750 is designated to support Question 1: BMP Effectiveness Monitoring; $328,922 to support Question 2: Watershed Restoration Assessment / Question 3: Biological Community Restoration; and $83,287 to support Question 5a: Bacteria and Chloride as priority research areas funded by Maryland MS4 permittee funders. In addition, approximately $300,000 in anticipated funding will support the social science research Questions 6 and 7, provided by US EPA CBPO.
Eligibility Criteria
Both not-for-profit entities (academic institutions, non-profit organizations) and for-profit entities are permitted to apply. The strongest proposals will show committed partnerships with various types of organizations. Organizations need not be based in Maryland, but the work must be relevant to Maryland’s restoration, regulatory, and/or practitioner communities since many funders are based in this state.
For more information, visit CBT.
