Notice of Intent: Developing Skills and Methods for LandscapE | P19AS00037

Opportunity Information: Apply for P19AS00037

The Notice of Intent: Developing Skills and Methods for LandscapE (Funding Opportunity Number P19AS00037) is a discretionary cooperative agreement offered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, under CFDA 15.945 (Natural Resources). The opportunity was created on March 4, 2019, with an original closing date of March 13, 2019. It anticipated a single award, with a maximum award amount (ceiling) of $400,000. Eligibility was limited to public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, positioning universities as the primary applicants and partners for carrying out the work.

The central purpose of the project is professional development: it is designed to give University of New Mexico archaeology and anthropology students hands-on, practical experience in assessing cultural resources at a landscape scale rather than only at individual site or project footprints. In other words, the program aims to train students to think and work at the broader scale used in modern cultural resource management and National Park Service planning, where understanding patterns across an entire area is critical for protection, decision-making, and long-term stewardship.

The work would be carried out through a cooperative effort involving the University of New Mexico and the UNM Office of Contract Archaeology (OCA) team, with the National Park Service playing an active collaborative role typical of cooperative agreements. A major deliverable described in the notice is the continued development and implementation of a landscape-scale database that integrates both cultural and natural resource information within VALL. This database component suggests a focus on building or improving a structured, spatially oriented system (often GIS-based in this type of work) that can support planning, analysis, and management decisions across a large area rather than being limited to isolated records.

In addition to database development, the opportunity emphasizes conducting cultural resource inventories and establishing baseline data for future monitoring and management. This implies systematic field and/or archival inventory efforts that document what resources are present, where they are located, and what their current condition is, creating a reference point so future changes can be detected. Baseline datasets are especially important for protected landscapes and park units because they allow managers to track impacts over time, prioritize protection activities, and evaluate how natural processes and human use affect sensitive cultural places.

Another highlighted component is the development of cultural resource sensitivity modeling tools. These tools are intended to support smarter and more efficient management by helping predict where cultural resources are most likely to be found (resource location probability), guiding inventory sampling strategies, and assessing vulnerability to disturbances such as fire and erosion. In practice, sensitivity models often combine known site data with environmental and landscape variables to identify high-probability or high-risk areas, which can then inform where surveys should be concentrated, how fuels treatments or trail work might be planned, and which locations should receive additional protection or monitoring.

Across all of these tasks, the opportunity’s training mission remains the thread tying the project together. Students would not only observe but actively participate in building the database, performing inventories, creating baseline records, and developing and applying sensitivity models. The overall intent is to strengthen students’ real-world capabilities in landscape-scale cultural resource assessment, including the kinds of analytical and management-oriented methods that are increasingly expected in professional cultural resource management and public land stewardship settings.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Notice of Intent: Developing Skills and Methods for LandscapE" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.945.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 04, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 13, 2019. (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 $400,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education.

Apply for P19AS00037

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