USGS and the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) has formally announced their request for proposals to support the 2008 National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Cooperative Agreements Program (CAP).  A total of over $1.2 million has been made available to fund an estimated 26 innovative projects in spread across six geospatial data categories.  Each project will focus on ways to build new and improve existing geospatial data infrastructure necessary to effectively discover, access, share, manage and use digital geographic data.

The closing date for the 2008 NSDI CAP announcement is December 18, 2007.  The project awards are scheduled to be announced by USGS/FGDC contracts officer in February 2007 with obligated work to begin on each project no later than September 30, 2008.  More information is available at http://www.fgdc.gov/grants/2008CAP/2008CAPschedule.

In 2007, NSDI CAP awarded a total of 29 projects, totaling a projected $1.3 million. One of the 2007 categories is The Fifty State Initiatives which is looking to engage geospatial community within a State to contribute to the creation of strategic and business plans that will provide a basis for future geospatial information and technologies.   For information and descriptions of 2007 NSDI CAP project awards please visit Federal Geographic Data Committee’s website http://www.fgdc.gov/grants/2007CAP/2007CAPDescriptions. 

To date the NSDI CAP awards have created collaborations at all levels of government, provided seed money to enable geospatial organizations to participate in national effort to  implement the NSDI, promoted the development of  standardized metadata in hundreds of organizations, and funded numerous implementations of OpenGIS Web Mapping Services and Web Feature Services.  The fourteen years of CAP awards have played a substantial role in promoting and disseminating the tenets of the NSDI to thousands of practitioners.

The FGDC of the USGS National Geospatial Program Office sponsors the CAP to promote the technologies, standards, best practices and organizational collaboration vital to data integration, partnerships for data investment and speedy delivery of geospatial products to support government.

For more information on this program, please contact Gita Urban-Mathieux: burbanma@usgs.gov or 703-648-5175.

For further information on FGDC NSDI CAP Grants: www.fgdc.gov; contact the FGDC Secretariat, c/o U.S. Geological Survey, 590 National Center, Reston, VA 20192; telephone 703-648-5513; fax 703-648-5755.