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Hydroinformatics Innovation Fellowship

CUAHSI's Hydroinformatics Innovation Fellowship program enables scientists to create and share a hydroinformatics product with the CUAHSI community.

This fellowship supports projects that result in a product that can be shared within one year of funding. Scientists at U.S. universities and colleges are eligible for this grant.

CUAHSI will consider proposals that request funding up to $5,000. Eligible expenses for awardees include travel costs associated with acquiring new skills, site or reverse site visits, software or data licenses, access to cyberinfrastructure, dissemination costs, and student support. Indirect costs are not covered by CUAHSI and cannot be included in the budget. Awardees will be expected to comply with CUAHSI's travel and related expenditure policies and will be required to submit a final report in addition to an itemized statement of costs.

New this year, a Data Booster track is offered. This track will focus on increasing accessibility of hydrologic data, with potential outcomes including reformatting existing data sets or rescue of legacy data to make them more accessible. We will continue to offer the exploratory and advanced tracks to support research at different stages. 

Applicants will indicate if their proposal should be considered as part of the Data Booster, Exploratory or Advanced Track. The tracks are described below:

Track 1 - Data Booster

  • This proposal track is data-intensive and focuses on the publication of hydrologic data to be widely accessible and usable by others, including new datasets or the reformatting or rescue of legacy data that are not currently accessible.
  • The research statement should include evidence for the need of the data published by this work, and identify current gaps this work could address.
  • Outcomes can include, but are not limited to: data rescue, metadata development, data publication, data cloudification, data visualization, expansion of otherwise single-use datasets.
  • “Data Booster” grant applications must result in data published in a trusted repository (e.g., HydroShare)


Track 2 - Exploratory

  • This proposal track is for work in hydroinformatics that is in the early stages.
  • The research statement should include evidence for the need of this work and knowledge gaps this work will address.
  • Outcomes can include, but are not limited to: training, tutorials and/or notebooks to navigate existing resources and datasets.


Track 3 - Advanced

  • This proposal is for a continuation of existing work in hydroinformatics.
  • The research statement should include evidence of previous work and the need for these funds to continue the research.
  • Outcomes can include, but are not limited to: software development, software publication, technical publication.


Example products include:

  • Software, including apps that can integrate with CUAHSI's Water Data Services;
  • New data products of interest to the community;
  • Data rescue products;
  • Technical publications

Successful proposals will likely have more than one identified outcome. Proposals that focus on leveraging or extending CUAHSI's Water Data Services or other open source and open data resources may be given priority.

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    Additional Information

    The application consists of the following items:

    1. Research narrative (3 pages max.) describing the proposed research
    2. One page proposed budget, including justification
    3. One page maximum data management plan
    4. CV of the applicant (2 pages max)
    5. Graduate students must include a Letter of Support from their academic advisor

    Proposals must indicate which track they are applying to. Proposals should discuss existing work to date, major milestones, licensing terms (for software, data, or publications), sustainability of outcome product(s), and target audience for outcome product(s). Please be specific about project milestones and goals, known challenges and the audience for resulting product(s). An itemized budget of all expenses and a brief data management plan are required. If expected expenses exceed $5,000, please provide information on how the remainder will be funded. Data management plans, to the extent possible, should utilize CUAHSI's Water Data Services.

    CUAHSI will accept collaborative proposals. Please identify a team leader who will be the point of contact with CUAHSI throughout the project. The team leader will be required to submit their CV and a letter of support from their advisor, if a graduate student, with the application.

    1. The degree to which the proposed activities are required to address the stated problem.

    2. Are the proposed activities sufficient to address the research problem?

    3. Does the student have the necessary background knowledge/training/experience to take full advantage of this activity?

    4. Is the level of effort appropriate for the proposed timeline?

    5. Will additional resources be required to fully integrate this experience? If so, is there evidence that the student and mentors are aware of and have planned for this?

    6. Will the Data Management Plan be effective in preserving and disseminating resulting data products? Is it compliant with FAIR guidelines?

    7. Are the broader impacts of the applicant's work clearly outlined and explained? Here is how the NSF defines broader impacts.

    • Application period has closed.
    • The application process is completed online through ProposalSpace. You must create an account with Proposal Space to submit your application. There is no fee for submitting. You can save your application in progress and return to it later, but all required documents must be entered before submitting. All required information must be submitted by the application deadline.

    Eligibility. Graduate students, postdocs, early-career faculty, and scientists enrolled in or currently employed by a U.S.-based college or university are eligible to receive a Hydroinformatics Innovation Fellowship.

    Grant conditions. Up to $5,000 are available for the awardee only. Fellowships funds cannot be used for indirect costs. If the proposed work exceeds $5,000, the proposal must include an explanation of where the remaining funds will be coming from.

    CUAHSI Code of Conduct compliance. Fellows are required to comply with CUAHSI's Code of Conduct and complete a Disclosure Form upon award.

    Deliverables

    • Final report. Awardees will be expected to provide a summary report documenting original goals, resulting product(s), and a final dissemination plan. Products should be available to the community in a documented, discoverable repository, such as CUAHSI's HydroShare or GitHub. Apps should be integrated into existing community infrastructure to the extent possible.
    • Dissemination. Recipients are expected to develop and execute a plan for disseminating their research results, including the archiving and publication of any data collected.
    • Blog post. Awardees will share their findings in a Hydroinformatics Blog post.
    • Results are expected to be presented at a reputable scientific conference such as the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting or a CUAHSI Conference.
    • Hear Arash Modarasi Rad, Boise State University, describe his project and the impact that this fellowship had on his graduate studies, in this short video.
    • Chao Chen, Boise State University. Advancing CUAHSI’s Data Management Platform with a Machine Learning and Test-Based Automated Quality Control Web Application.
    • Abby Lute, University of Idaho. SnowClim: A High Resolution Snow Model and Data for the western United States.
    • Holger Virro, Yale University. A Global Water Quality Dataset Suitable for Water Quality Prediction using Machine Learning.