Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center – Call for Project Ideas

The Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center‘s mission is to develop and deliver scientific knowledge, synthesis, and tools needed to help fish, wildlife, plants, and ecosystems adapt to a changing climate.

The 2026 SE CASC Consortium call for project ideas includes two opportunities with different submission requirements, both with a deadline of February 27, 2026. They both seek projects that fall under the priority tracks listed below.

Priority Tracks

1. Game Species track: This topic seeks proposals that improve understanding of game species responses to environmental variability and management actions, and that support resilience-focused strategies for species important to recreational and subsistence hunting and fishing in the southeastern United States and U.S. Caribbean. Research should inform forward-looking management approaches that sustain populations, habitats, and associated social and economic benefits over time.  Projects may address freshwater, coastal, or terrestrial species, including but not limited to bass, catfish, inshore saltwater fish, reef-associated Caribbean species, small game species, and large game species. Proposals that evaluate or test resilience-building management strategies and engage management agencies or stakeholders are encouraged.
2. Extreme or Compounding Events track:  Extreme events, such as storm severity, flooding, and high heat, are increasing with climate change. However, there is no clear consensus on how to promote climate adaptation for species or ecosystems following extreme events. Moreover, extreme events are often not isolated. Multiple extreme events may have compounding effects (e.g., heat waves coinciding with droughts), which may make adaptation actions for resilience difficult to design. Project ideas submitted to this track can focus on climate adaptation actions after extreme events or climate adaptation actions that help prepare for future extreme scenarios.
3. Efficiency and Effectiveness of Management track:  This track seeks projects that contribute to climate adaptation strategies that deliver economic and ecological co-benefits, including improving the efficiency and effectiveness of management actions. We are particularly interested in research that examines integrated approaches – such as forest, habitat, or wildlife management – that align adaptation goals with economic benefits, ecosystem services, or other societal benefits. Projects may inform or assess win–win strategies with adaptation, species, and economic benefits; quantify tradeoffs; or evaluate the economic and ecological costs of delayed or foregone adaptation actions. Examples include forest thinning, with benefits for improved savanna habitat, drought preparation, and wildfire planning. Applied studies that evaluate the effectiveness of real-world management decisions in the Southeast are encouraged.
4. Tribal Climate Adaptation track:  Project ideas submitted to this track should be important to and identified by a Federally recognized Tribal Nation within the SE CASC footprint and address management of fish, wildlife, ecosystems, or cultural resources under a changing climate. If the proposer is not from a Tribal Nation, they must include a Tribal member as a full investigator on their project. Proposers must also outline their plan to ensure Tribal sovereign management of information, resources, and data and a proposed framework of co-production with Tribal membership. Proposers are encouraged to contact the regional Tribal Community Liaisons for SE CASC (Dr. Steph Courtney or Breanna Knudsen) as they develop their proposal.
5. Innovation track:  Climate adaptation requires looking into the future to make decisions about today. Our priorities are often based on the needs identified by managers today but may miss future issues that have not come down the pipeline yet. The Innovation track is an opportunity to apply for funding for science development, synthesis, tools, working groups, or convenings for ideas that may not yet have come across managers’ radars. It is incumbent upon proposers applying to this track to clearly outline their co-production model.

Visit the SE CASC website for opportunity details, eligibility, and submission requirements.