USGS Earthquake Hazards Program External Research Support FY2027

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program External Research Support FY2027

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earthquake Hazards Program (EHP) solicited external research proposals for Fiscal Year 2027 under funding opportunity number G27AS00075. The program supports research in earthquake hazards, earthquake physics, earthquake occurrence, and earthquake safety policy. The federal listing records the solicitation as archived June 30, 2026, while the USGS program page still carries the FY2027 notice and its past application deadline of June 4, 2026.

This page is therefore a historical reference, not an open application listing. The USGS annual-grants page still explains the standing program and directs researchers to Grants.gov for the next application period, but it does not announce a new deadline. Applicants interested in a future round should monitor Grants.gov for the Earthquake Hazards Program assistance listing and the USGS External Grants page rather than treating this FY2027 record as available for submission.

Verified opportunity details

The amount needs careful reading. The opportunity record displays $4,000,000 as program funding and describes an estimated $4 million for competitive research, while also stating that the maximum total is $7 million. It does not promise a fixed award amount to any applicant. The record says that approximately 50 to 70 new awards are funded each fiscal year based on recent years and separately displays 60 expected awards. Most awards are described as falling between $30,000 and $120,000. Those figures are planning information, not a guaranteed award floor, ceiling, or number of awards.

What the FY2027 program supported

The EHP uses external grants to obtain research and products that contribute to its mission of reducing deaths, injuries, and economic losses from earthquakes and improving public safety and resilience. The solicitation is not a general operating grant. It asks for a defined research project that can provide scientific information, methods, or situational-awareness products useful to USGS priorities.

The FY2027 priorities were organized across five regional areas and five topical areas. Regional areas included the Central and Eastern United States, Intermountain West, Northern California, Pacific Northwest and Alaska, and Southern California. Topical areas included Earthquake Early Warning, Earthquake Rupture Forecasting, Earthquake Source Processes, Hazard, Impacts, and Risk, and Ground Motion. A proposal could address more than one need, but it had to be submitted to one regional or topical panel.

The research-priority attachment describes four broad program elements. The first concerns national and regional earthquake hazard assessments, including seismic sources, recurrence, ground motions, site effects, and improvements to the National Seismic Hazard Model. The second concerns earthquake information, monitoring, and notification, including improved algorithms, data integration, source characterization, and earthquake early warning research. Routine seismic and geodetic monitoring operations were identified as a separate funding matter, not the purpose of this research solicitation.

The third element covers earthquake occurrence, physics, effects, impacts, and risks. Potential work could include studies of earthquake recurrence, fault segmentation, rupture dimensions, ground failure, site amplification, induced seismicity, or systematic information about losses. The fourth element covers resilience, safety policy, communication, and engagement with users of earthquake information. Examples include collaboration with practitioners, assessment of vulnerability, coordination among Tribal and governmental agencies, evaluation of existing earthquake products, and development of communication tools.

The attachment also says that producing data or reports alone is not enough to reduce risk. Applicants were encouraged to work with intended users so that research results could be interpreted and applied. That makes the connection between method, product, and decision use important. A strong historical reading of the solicitation is that scientific quality and practical usefulness were expected together.

Eligibility and exclusions

The federal record lists the following eligible applicant categories: public and state institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, independent school districts, nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status, other Native American tribal organizations, federally recognized Native American tribal governments, city or township governments, county governments, state governments, special district governments, public and Indian housing authorities, small businesses, and individuals.

That list does not mean every project from an eligible entity qualifies. The announcement says it is open to individuals and entities except for specified ineligible categories. Proposals for regional seismic monitoring or establishing data centers were not eligible. Proposals for long-term operation of geodetic networks or instruments were not eligible. Proposals from U.S. government agencies, U.S. government employees, and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers were excluded.

The announcement also excludes proposals involving a real or apparent conflict of interest, proposals principally involving direct procurement of a product, equipment, or service, and proposals with subcontracts equal to or greater than 50 percent of total direct costs. USGS said it would review the SAM.gov Exclusions database for applicant entities and key project personnel before award.

Federal employee participation has a specific restriction. Federal employees, including USGS employees, could not serve in any capacity, paid or unpaid, on an application submitted under the announcement and could not assist in developing a proposal. The notice distinguishes this from collaboration after an award: cooperation between USGS and non-USGS scientists was not prohibited once a grant or cooperative agreement was in place. Teams preparing for a future cycle should keep that boundary in their internal review and collaboration records.

Application process used for this cycle

The FY2027 application process required electronic submission through Grants.gov. The USGS program page says paper copies would not be accepted and that the detailed requirements, guidance, and annual research priorities were available through the Grants.gov program announcement. The opportunity record advised applicants to allow enough time for electronic submission and warned that a proposal received after the closing date and time would not be considered for award.

Before submission, applicants needed to select the one regional or topical research area that best fit the proposed work and identify the specific priorities addressed. The research-priority attachment recommended contacting the appropriate regional or topical coordinator. Coordinators could help applicants determine the proper panel, identify related USGS work, locate relevant datasets, and understand whether a proposed project duplicated or complemented internal efforts. This was a substantive preparation step, not merely an administrative contact option.

The proposal package also needed the required application components and attachments listed with the federal record. The listing provided the final notice of funding opportunity, an external research priorities attachment, a USGS scientist letter-of-collaboration template, a proposal information summary template, a budget summary template, award terms and conditions, and a later modification to the notice. A future applicant should download the current package from Grants.gov because templates and priorities are cycle-specific.

The notice allowed a revised or corrected proposal during the application period. The replacement submission had to include a cover letter as the first page stating that the proposal was revised and that the earlier submission should be withdrawn from consideration. That instruction matters because a corrected upload was not simply an additional copy; it was intended to replace the earlier version. For the FY2027 cycle, all such submissions still had to arrive by June 4, 2026 at 6:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time.

Status and guidance for future applicants

There is no valid way to apply to this FY2027 record now. Its real deadline remains in the deadline field because that field records the closed cycle, while historicalReference = true makes the archive status explicit. The page does not substitute a guessed future date, and it does not use rolling: the USGS announcement was a fixed-window competitive solicitation, not a continuously accepting program.

The standing EHP External Grants program may recur, but recurrence is not the same as an announced opportunity. The USGS page tells researchers to subscribe to Grants.gov notifications for CFDA number 15.807 application-period openings. It also notes that unsolicited proposals may be submitted out of cycle only when there is a compelling circumstance or emergency that must be addressed before the next competitive grant cycle, and that proposers should contact the appropriate regional or topical coordinator first. That narrow exception should not be read as a replacement for the annual competition.

For a future announcement, a prospective applicant should begin by checking the new funding opportunity number, closing time, research-priority attachment, applicant categories, and current award terms. Next, map the project to one panel and one or more stated priorities. Confirm that the work is research rather than routine network operation, direct procurement, or a project dominated by subcontracting. Establish that no federal employee is assisting with proposal development. Build a budget that is justified by the proposed work rather than by the common award range alone. Finally, submit through Grants.gov with time for system delays and retain the submission confirmation.

The FY2027 record is useful as a planning example because it shows the level of specificity expected: a defined earthquake-science question, a clear connection to EHP products or public-safety decisions, a credible user-engagement plan, eligible project roles, and a compliant electronic package. It should now be read as an archive of that closed competition, with the USGS External Grants page and Grants.gov as the places to verify any future cycle.