Now Hiring: A unique opportunity for science communicators

Our friends over at Iowa Learning Farms (ILF) and Water Rocks! (WR!) have a position open right now that you may want to take a look at. They’re hiring a Communications and Outreach Specialist for their programs – which sounds pretty standard, right? But there are so many reasons this job is unlike others in the same category.

  1. ILF and WR! are high energy programs with a small team that works very closely together. The right person for this job will appreciate working along side others and sharing knowledge and skills to achieve program goals.
  2. This communicator will not just spread information – they will have the opportunity to teach others (especially children) about natural resources. The Communications and Outreach Specialist won’t just be stuck in an office all day – they’ll get to mix it up by attending some of the many events ILF and WR! put on in schools, at fairs and other public places.
  3. This position isn’t just limited to communications – they’ll get to get their hands dirty by doing some agricultural field work. Now that’s something most communications jobs don’t offer.

If you or someone you know is passionate about natural resources, appreciates and understands scientific concepts, is great at engaging others, and thrives in a team environment, this might just be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Really important things to know:

-This job requires a bachelor’s degree and 1 year of experience
-Applications are being accepted until 10/25/15
-You can apply online through Iowa State’s employment website

The position description is available online. We look forward to meeting our new colleague (wherever/whoever they are!) and wish ILF and WR! a happy hiring experience!

Side note: Iowa Water Center Rick Cruse participated this week in the ILF podcast series Conservation Chat – look for his interview coming soon.

FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: IWC’s 104(b) competition

At long last, the Iowa Water Center has released the request for proposals for the 2016 104(b) seed grant competition. Proposals are due November 16, 2015. This year, there are two programs for which to apply:

Seed Grant Water Research Competition

Funding of up to $30,000 for one year is available for researchers at one of Iowa’s accredited public or private universities or community colleges. Multiple year projects will be considered for the seed grant water research competition, but continued funding for subsequent years is subject to the availability of funds and progress made in the first year. The proposal must indicate what results/products can be achieved in each individual project year. Subsequent year funding is not guaranteed. Researchers seeking second-year funding must resubmit their proposal showing a new budget and progress made.

Priority will be given to projects that show potential for attracting additional grant money from state, federal, and other sources to support the research program. If funded, two short but required reports must be completed during the project year as a USGS requirement. The Iowa Water Center will also request a fact sheet from your work and a contribution to the Iowa Water Conference in the form of a poster or presentation.

In subsequent years, the Iowa Water Center will contact investigators to survey future impacts resulting from the seed grant funding, including “follow-on funding” and partnerships made as a result of grant activities.

The Iowa Water Center anticipates funding one seed grant in 2016.

Graduate Student Supplemental Research Competition

Funding of up to $5,000 for one year is available to graduate students nearing completion of their program of study. This program is designed to allow students to complete additional research objectives or products beyond the scope of their current water related funded project. The proposed budget must also include funds for publication costs; students will be encouraged to submit their research to peer-reviewed publications. Iowa Water Center staff will be available to help facilitate such submissions.

The Iowa Water Center anticipates funding two graduate student supplemental grants in 2016.

Priority Area for 2016: nutrients

This year’s focus will be on nutrients and their impact on Iowa’s waters and water management decisions. Excess nutrients in Iowa’s waters contribute to significant water quality issues, both locally and downstream. Public awareness of nutrient-related water quality issues is rising along with pressure on legislative bodies to address nutrient management issues through regulation.

Nutrients in water is a broad topic that may encompass any of the following areas related to excess nutrients in surface and ground water:

  • land use implications
  • tile drainage management
  • sedimentation and phosphorus loss
  • eutrophication
  • water quality monitoring

If you have any questions about this program, please contact Melissa Miller.

Long time, no see: Updates from IWC

When we started this blog, we promised a post at least every other week – what do you mean, April 30th was more than two weeks ago?

The summer is flying by at the Iowa Water Center, but our blog silence doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy (just the opposite, as you might imagine). Here are some things we’ve been working on:

  1. Iowa Water Conference 2016.  The dates have been set – March 23 and 24. Why the switch? For several years, we’ve received many comments on the difficulties of a Monday/Tuesday schedule, and many years we’ve run into the lion-like weather issues of early March. With that in mind, we’re giving the later dates a chance. There are some challenges to these dates as well (cutting it pretty close to field work), but we’re hoping everyone can make the trip in later March.We’re also accepting applications to speak at the Iowa Water Conference – please read the call for proposals on the IWC website and follow the link to the web form within the call to submit your presentation proposal.
  2. New graduate student grant competition. In addition to the 104(b) research seed grant competition, IWC will seek proposals this fall from graduate students looking to delve deeper into their currently funded projects. Up to $5,000 is available for supplemental funding to achieve additional research goals. Funds can be used for analytical costs, materials and supplies, domestic travel, and publication fees. In fact, publication fees must be included in the budget; a major objective of this program is to encourage students to seek publication of their work. More on this new program in a later post. The RFA will be available by the end of August with a due date in mid-November.
  3. Future state-wide water event. Now, we can’t say much on this one, but one of Iowa’s fantastic water organizations has a vision for a state-wide water event to complement the Iowa Water Conference to occur late next summer. The plans are just now beginning, but we can assure you that you won’t want to miss this event in 2016.

There’s a lot more than that going on in the world of Iowa water – what is your organization working on? Tell us so we can share far and wide!

FUNDING ANNOUNCEMENT: USACE-IWR/NIWR Water Resources Competitive Grants Program

One of the three grant opportunities the Iowa Water Center (IWC) facilitates submissions for each year is Water Resources Competitive Grants Program, sponsored by the US Army Corps of Engineer Institute for Water Resources (IWR). This year’s proposal deadline is a month earlier than last year – July 17, 2015. Here’s a few things you need to know about this program:

1) IWR works with Water Resources Research Institutes like IWC to help manage the submission process. What does that mean? Researchers are encouraged to work with their state institute director while developing their proposal. They must submit their proposal to the WRRI, who will review it before passing it along to IWR. This process allows for more coordinated water resources research in the state.

2) Funds are pretty limited and competitive for this opportunity: typically only 1-2 projects are awarded with a max budget of $200,000. The good news: no matching funds are required.

3) This opportunity is for applied investigative proposals. There are three objectives – collaboration between IWR and university scientists, dissemination and application of information, and training of scientists, engineer and policy makers in water resources. Priority areas vary from year to year – the FY2015 call has eight.

4) The funded project in FY2014 went to *drum roll, please* the University of Iowa, for the highly collaborative “Prototype Multi-Jurisdictional Decision Making Web Platform for Integrated Water Resources Management: From Interagency Collaboration to Implementation in the Iowa-Cedar Watershed.” Marian Muste with IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering is the lead investigator.

For more information, please read the FY 2015 RFP – it’s fairly short and worth your while to peruse it to see if you know of a project that would be a good fit.

Finally, the most important note – if you plan to apply this year, you MUST contact the Iowa Water Center as soon as possible to let us know so we can be prepared to review and submit your project!

ONE WEEK TO GO! Iowa Water Conference Update

With one week left to go, we are just about all set for the 2015 Iowa Water Conference! A little hiccup with the website last week (thanks to a university-wide outage) had us answering a lot of calls and emails about registration last week, but everything is up and running and rarin’ to go. A few key points:

–Early registration (a $25 discount) has been extended to this Tuesday, February 24 at midnight.

–Oral research presentations – a chance to showcase your research in a 15 minute presentation during breakout sessions – are still being solicited until Tuesday at midnight also. (The online form does have a deadline of Feb 20 – please disregard.)

-We are offering an optional workshop on the front end of the conference again in 2015 (Monday from 8-10) – this year we’re learning about Portland, Oregon’s Green Infrastructure efforts. The fee for this workshop is $50, which you can select as an option during registration, or register onsite the day of.

-At the tail end of the conference (Tuesday from 3-5:30), we are hosting a listening session on behalf of FEMA related to the new Federal Flood Risk Management Standard. More details, including documents regarding the Standards and the Draft Implementation Guidelines, can be found at the Iowa Water Center website’s event listing.

-We have a GREAT list of exhibitors, both commercial and non-profit/educational. They are:

COMMERCIAL:

Non-profit/Educational:

That’s it for now – the long and short of it, if you haven’t registered, there’s still time! We have a fantastic program this year and wouldn’t want anyone to miss it.

FUNDING ANNOUNCEMENT: 104(g) National Competitive Grants

The 104(g) National Competitive Grants program is one of three grant programs administered annually by the Iowa Water Center in coordination with the National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR).

Funding alert – the National Institutes for Water Resources in conjunction with the US Geological Survey has issued their call for proposals for the 2015 104(g) National Competitive Grants program.

Here’s the scoop…

Proposal URL (<——CLICK ME!)
Due Date: February 19, 2015
Submit to: niwr.net (hint: you have to create a log-in to get submit, so you may want to get in the system sooner rather than later to play around)
Award maximum and duration: 1-3 years, $250,000 maximum.
Scope: Proposals must focus on “water problems and issues of a regional or interstate nature”. Collaboration between organizations and agencies (particularly USGS) are highly encouraged and USGS partnerships receive extra weight in evaluation.

2015 Priorities:

  • Evaluation of innovative approaches to water treatment, infrastructure design,  retrofitting, maintenance, management and replacement.
  • Exploration and advancement of our understanding of changes in the quantity and quality of water resources in response to a changing climate, population shifts, and land use changes; including associate economic, environmental, social, and/or infrastructure costs.
  • Development of methods for better estimation of water supply, both surface and groundwater, including estimation of the physical supply and of the economic supply of water.
  • Development and evaluation of processes and governance mechanisms for integrated surface/groundwater management.
  • Evaluation and assessment of the effects of water conservation practices, as well as adoption, penetration and permanence.

Other interesting information:

Iowa has seen some success with getting proposals in this competition funded in the past few years, most recently a project in 2014 from University of Iowa PI Dr. Gabriele Villarini.

The Iowa Water Center reviews all proposals after they have been submitted and must approve them in order for them to be considered by the selection committee. While your application SHOULD be complete at the February deadline, if there are any changes needed, IWC staff will be in touch before final approval.

Have any questions? Just send a message to Melissa Miller and we’ll get it taken care of!

ANNOUNCEMENT: Oklahoma State University Student Water Conference now accepting abstracts

On March 26-27, 2015, Oklahoma State University will host its Student Water Conference in Stillwater, OK, and they’re looking for students to submit their abstracts in water research.

From the website:

“About the Conference: The conference will consist entirely of student presentations to be judged by a panel of faculty members for providing constructive feedback to students in regard to their research presentation skills. Awards will be given for outstanding student presentations. Also, student activities will promote interaction among students of all disciplines.”

A note from Dr. Garey Fox, interim director of the Oklahoma Water Resources Center, mentions that there are travel assistantship funds up to $500 for participating students. They’re hoping to have students from all across the country.

This conference comes at a great time for students looking to present their research in a contest format – the Iowa Water Conference is just a few short weeks before and features a student poster contest as well as a non-judged format with 15-minute oral research presentations. The Iowa Water Conference would be a great warm up for those students looking to compete at the Oklahoma event!

H2 in the KnOw: IWC joins the blogosphere

The Iowa Water Center has been around since 1964. Blogging has been around since 1994. Twenty years is a long time for the two to have never met.

The staff at the Iowa Water Center is incredibly passionate about getting the word out about Iowa’s water – from research to practice, from policy to watershed management, from education to water careers. We value a science based approach to addressing Iowa’s water topics, and we are always looking for new ways to tell Iowa’s water story. Thus, the IWC blog, “H2 in the KnOw,” is born.

The goal of this blog is to spread the message of what’s happening in Iowa’s water world (and sometimes beyond). We reach out in a number of different ways already – our website, bi-monthly newsletter News Flow, Twitter, Facebook – but let’s face it, there is a lot going on with water, and we want this blog to  spark conversations, challenge our knowledge and fuel the excitement for water in ways that go beyond what we’re already doing.

With that, we invite you to join us. We’ll be publishing semi-weekly (maybe more, but never less), featuring some original content, offering insights to what others are doing, and giving guest bloggers an opportunity to share their take on Iowa water.

Thanks for having us, blogosphere.