FY 2025 Bureau of Land Management National Conservation Lands - Management Studies Support Program | L25AS00137

Opportunity Information: Apply for L25AS00137

The FY 2025 Bureau of Land Management (BLM) National Conservation Lands (NCL) Management Studies Support Program is a discretionary funding opportunity designed to pay for targeted studies that strengthen how BLM understands and manages the resources and values protected on its National Conservation Lands. At its core, the program is about producing practical, management-focused research that helps BLM evaluate what is on the ground (natural, cultural, scenic, recreational, and other resource values), how those resources are changing, and how well current management decisions are working. The studies supported through this program are intended to generate "best available data" and useful syntheses that can be applied directly to BLM planning, day-to-day land management decisions, and broader co-stewardship efforts. While the work is centered on National Conservation Lands, the resulting methods, findings, and management insights are also expected to inform decisions across BLM and potentially other land management agencies.

A major emphasis of this program is partnership. BLM is explicitly using this program to develop and maintain strong working relationships with universities, state and local governments, tribal governments and tribal organizations, and nonprofit partners. The intent is shared conservation stewardship: BLM wants partners to help design and carry out research and analysis that answers management-relevant questions, fills information gaps, and supports adaptive management. This typically means projects that are framed around real management needs, such as assessing resource conditions, monitoring trends, evaluating the effectiveness of management actions, or developing decision-support information that can be incorporated into BLM processes and strategies.

Funding is provided through cooperative agreements, which generally means BLM expects to have substantial involvement during the project (for example, coordination on study design, data needs, field access, interpretation of results, or integration of findings into management). The opportunity is listed under CFDA 15.248 (Natural Resources) and is run by the Bureau of Land Management. The funding opportunity number is L25AS00137, and the posted closing date is January 31, 2025. The maximum award amount (award ceiling) is $40,000. The notice lists "ExpectedAwards:" but does not provide a number in the source text provided, so applicants should not assume a guaranteed number of awards will be made without checking the full notice and available funding.

Eligible applicants include state governments; county governments; city or township governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; Native American tribal organizations that are not federally recognized tribal governments; and nonprofits (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3), as long as they are not institutions of higher education). Individuals and for-profit organizations are explicitly ineligible under this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), which is an important screen for any team thinking of applying through a private business or an individual principal investigator rather than an eligible institution.

There are also clear boundaries on what this program will not fund. This NOFO does not support projects that involve hiring interns or crews under the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993. The notice explains that the Public Lands Corps Act is the only legislative authority BLM can use to "hire" interns under that framework, and youth corps-type proposals should instead be directed to a different funding opportunity: NOFO 15.243, BLM Youth Conservation Opportunities on Public Lands. In practical terms, this means applicants should keep proposals centered on management studies and research support rather than proposing youth crew hiring, internship programs, or corps-based field staffing models under this particular announcement.

The NOFO also addresses applicants working through Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESUs). CESUs are formal partnerships designed to support research, studies, monitoring, technical assistance, assessments, and education services that match federal science and stewardship needs. If an award is made to a CESU partner under a formally negotiated Master CESU agreement and the project aligns with the CESU purpose, indirect costs are capped at no more than 17.5 percent of the indirect cost base recognized in the partner's federally approved Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NICRA). Applicants are expected to state whether their proposal furthers CESU purposes and, if it does, identify which CESU Network should be considered as the host. This matters for budgeting and compliance, because the CESU indirect cost limitation can affect how an organization builds its budget compared to non-CESU federal assistance arrangements.

Overall, this opportunity is best understood as a small-grants, partnership-driven research support program focused on producing usable information for BLM managers responsible for National Conservation Lands. Competitive proposals are likely to be those that clearly connect a study to a specific management need, outline credible methods for data collection or synthesis, and demonstrate how results will be delivered in a form that BLM can apply to planning, stewardship decisions, and evaluation of management effectiveness, while staying within the eligibility rules, the cooperative agreement structure, the $40,000 ceiling, and the restrictions on youth corps and intern hiring under this NOFO.

• The Bureau of Land Management in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY 2025 Bureau of Land Management National Conservation Lands - Management Studies Support Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.248.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-11-22.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-01-31. (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 $40,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

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