Notice of Intent to Award | BOR DO 18 N014

Opportunity Information: Apply for BOR DO 18 N014

This funding opportunity is a Notice of Intent to Award issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, for a single cooperative agreement focused on research and development related to concrete dam safety. The program is listed under CFDA 15.560 and is categorized within Science and Technology and other Research and Development, indicating the work is meant to advance technical methods and practical understanding rather than fund routine operations or construction. The award is discretionary, with an expected total ceiling of $592,328, and the Bureau anticipates making one award.

The core purpose of the project is to strengthen how concrete dams are evaluated for safety by combining hands-on testing methods with high-end computational modeling. The research scope includes an overview and application-oriented review of field and laboratory testing techniques used to characterize dam concrete condition and behavior. In parallel, it calls for extensive advanced numerical simulations, which implies the recipient will use sophisticated computational tools to model how concrete dam structures respond over time and under various loads or degradation mechanisms. These simulations are not presented in isolation; they are explicitly framed within a structural and probabilistic safety assessment context, meaning the work is expected to connect physical condition data and model results to risk-informed decision-making. In practice, this typically involves quantifying uncertainties (for example, variability in material properties, deterioration rates, loading scenarios, and modeling assumptions) and translating them into probabilities of adverse performance states, rather than relying only on deterministic safety factors.

A major applied component of the agreement is a case study of Seminoe Dam, selected because it is experiencing alkali-silica reactivity (ASR) related expansion in its concrete. ASR is a well-known chemical reaction between reactive silica in certain aggregates and alkalis in cement paste in the presence of moisture, producing an expansive gel that can cause cracking, deformation, and long-term loss of stiffness or durability. By centering the case study on an operating dam with an active ASR issue, the project is geared toward producing results that are directly relevant to real-world dam safety programs, including how to interpret monitoring and test data, how to model ASR-driven expansion and its structural implications, and how to express the resulting safety posture in probabilistic terms that can support risk management and potential mitigation planning.

Administratively, the opportunity was created on May 18, 2018, with an original closing date of May 31, 2018, suggesting a short solicitation window consistent with a notice of intent where the agency may already have a specific partner or narrow eligibility in mind. Eligibility is broadly labeled as "Others," with additional clarification referenced in the full eligibility text, which commonly indicates that certain types of organizations (such as universities, research institutes, non-profits, or specific technical partners) may be targeted or that eligibility conditions are defined outside the summary field. Overall, this opportunity supports a focused, technically rigorous research effort intended to improve evaluation methods for concrete dam performance and safety, validated through an in-depth examination of Seminoe Dam's ASR-related behavior.

• The Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Notice of Intent to Award" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.560.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 18, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 31, 2018. (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 $592,328.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for BOR DO 18 N014

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