MAPR Cultural Landscapes Inventory for Tech Area 18 | P18AS00307

Opportunity Information: Apply for P18AS00307

The MAPR Cultural Landscapes Inventory for Tech Area 18 is a National Park Service (NPS) discretionary funding opportunity issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior to support cultural landscape documentation connected to Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The park was formally established on November 10, 2015, and is jointly managed through a partnership between the NPS and the U.S. Department of Energy. Its purpose is to preserve, interpret, and provide public access where feasible to historically important places tied to the Manhattan Project, the World War II-era effort that rapidly mobilized scientists, engineers, technicians, and military personnel to develop the first atomic weapons. The grant situates its work within the broader historical context of the project, including the Trinity Test on July 16, 1945, and the subsequent bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, emphasizing the national scale of activities coordinated by the U.S. Army across multiple sites.

This particular opportunity focuses on Los Alamos, New Mexico, one of the three major park units alongside Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Hanford, Washington. Los Alamos served as the wartime laboratory center where teams designed and fabricated the first nuclear weapons. The description highlights the historic settlement pattern and institutional footprint of the period: military staff, laboratory workers, and their families lived in the downtown area located at the former Los Alamos Ranch School site, while a fenced Main Technical Area once operated nearby as a dense complex of offices and research facilities. Importantly, the notice points out that this original Main Technical Area no longer exists, and that the park today includes multiple sets of historic structures scattered within the boundaries of the present-day national laboratory south of town. The inventory work implied by the title is aimed at identifying, documenting, and evaluating the cultural landscape resources associated with a specific technical area (Tech Area 18) within this broader, complex setting where historic features may be dispersed, altered, or partially lost over time.

The legal and administrative framework is also part of what the grant is supporting. Congress, through the park's enabling legislation, identified a range of facilities and areas that are eligible for inclusion in the park, some already included and others that may be added in the future. Final decisions about what is formally included are made by the Secretary of the Interior in consultation with the Secretary of Energy. A cultural landscapes inventory can therefore serve as a practical tool for management and planning by establishing a clear baseline record of historic landscape characteristics, contributing features, and integrity, and by improving the ability of the NPS and its federal partners to preserve resources and interpret the site for the public. In a place like Los Alamos, where contemporary national laboratory operations overlap with historic zones, an inventory can also help clarify what remains from the Manhattan Project era and how those remnants relate to the landscape as a whole.

From the funding standpoint, this opportunity is offered as a cooperative agreement, meaning the NPS expects to have substantial involvement with the recipient during the project rather than simply issuing a grant and stepping back. The activity category is listed under natural resources, but the substance is clearly tied to cultural resource stewardship and landscape documentation. The program is associated with CFDA number 15.945 and is limited in eligibility to public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, indicating the NPS is seeking an academic partner with relevant professional capacity (for example, in landscape history, cultural resource management, historical geography, preservation planning, or related fields). The opportunity anticipated a single award, with an award ceiling of $70,000.

Key administrative details show the opportunity was created on June 11, 2018, under funding opportunity number P18AS00307, with an original closing date of June 20, 2018, reflecting a short application window. Overall, the grant is best understood as targeted support for producing an authoritative cultural landscapes inventory for Tech Area 18 tied to the Los Alamos component of Manhattan Project National Historical Park, strengthening the documentation needed for preservation, interpretation, and potential future boundary and resource-inclusion decisions within a highly sensitive and historically significant federal landscape.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "MAPR Cultural Landscapes Inventory for Tech Area 18" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.945.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 11, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 20, 2018. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $70,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education.

Apply for P18AS00307

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