Continued Automated software Analysis for Bat Identification in the East.��� | F15AS00459

Opportunity Information: Apply for F15AS00459

The opportunity titled "Continued Automated software Analysis for Bat Identification in the East" (Funding Opportunity Number F15AS00459) is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service notice stating the agency intends to make a single-source award under a cooperative agreement. It sits in the discretionary funding category and is associated with CFDA 15.650, aligning with education, environment, science and technology, and other research and development activities. The notice was created on September 14, 2015, with an original closing date listed as September 21, 2015, and it anticipates one award. No award ceiling is specified (listed as 0), which typically means the notice itself does not provide a public maximum funding amount.

The core purpose of the planned cooperative agreement is to conduct quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) testing of automated bat identification software. The software to be tested is submitted to the Service by a range of vendors and developers, including private sector entities, universities, and government sources. The testing is meant to evaluate whether the submitted software performs with enough resolution and accuracy to support regulatory decision-making, specifically decisions about the presence or absence of bat species. This is important because presence/absence determinations can influence compliance and consultation needs under the Endangered Species Act, where accurate species identification can affect project approvals, mitigation requirements, and conservation actions.

A key point is that this notice is not a request for applications and there is no full announcement accompanying it. Even though the eligible applicants field is listed as "Unrestricted," the agency is explicitly indicating it will not run a competitive process for this action. Instead, the Fish and Wildlife Service is invoking internal departmental policy (cited as 505 DM 2.14, B.(2)) as the basis for awarding to a single source, and it notes that the decision not to compete is within the agency's discretion. Practically speaking, that means interested parties are not being invited to submit proposals, and the award is intended for a specific recipient selected by the agency to carry out the QA/QC testing work.

Overall, the notice signals a targeted effort by the Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure that bat acoustic identification tools used in an ESA regulatory context meet a defensible performance standard. By validating software accuracy and resolution through QA/QC testing, the agency aims to strengthen the reliability of automated analyses that may be used to support species detection conclusions, which can carry significant legal and conservation implications.

• The Fish and Wildlife Service in the education, environment, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Continued Automated software Analysis for Bat Identification in the East.���" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.650.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2015-09-14.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2015-09-21. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted.

Apply for F15AS00459

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: