NOAA terminates funding for Climate Impacts Group research collaborative

UW’s Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative (NCRC) received notice May 5 that they were to lose their federal funding and ordered them to cease all work, effective immediately. The acting director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Grants Management Division sent this notice via letter to NCRC.

NCRC was a NOAA Climate Adaptation Partnership (CAP) program, hosted by Climate Impacts Group (CIG), a UW research group and member organization of EarthLab. They relied on a five-year federal grant that was to run until August 2026, at which point they would apply for a grant renewal.

NCRC represented approximately 25% of CIG. It received $1 million annually and funded six positions.

CIG leadership was aware that NCRC was at risk following President Trump’s inauguration because it was federally funded. Still, there is no good way to prepare for work to be abruptly and entirely cut off, Co-Director of NCRC and Deputy Director of CIG, Jason Vogel, explained.

“We did not anticipate how quickly this would happen or how dramatically it would play out,” Vogel said.

NCRC was devoted to working with tribes and underserved communities in the Pacific Northwest to develop and implement region-specific climate solutions. These were primarily frontline communities: coastal tribes, underserved rural and urban communities, and other vulnerable populations that lacked the funds to implement solutions independently. 

Much of NCRC’s work was cut off mid-project.

NCRC had recently completed a two-and-a-half-year effort to understand the needs of coastal tribes. In August 2024, they published a report that includes adaptation and relocation information and outlines solutions such as green infrastructure, habitat restoration, and flood prevention. NCRC’s next steps were to begin solution implementation, which they can no longer complete.

The research group was also working with the rural town of Umatilla, Oregon, to identify groundwater pollution levels. The researchers identified that groundwater in the region was exceeding health limits for nitrate levels and that a solution would require the development of a small water purification system for the area. 

NCRC had worked with the community on short-term solutions, such as education for residents on installing filtration systems and distributing clean water. They were to begin researching how they could implement long-term solutions, such as a water purification system. This is no longer feasible without federal funding.

In addition to losing staff, the funding cuts to CIG will deeply impair many of the relationships between researchers and communities. According to Vogel, it is imperative for CIG to invest in relationships that last years so that they can make a real, lasting impact on the people they work with.

“Knowing that you have to leave those communities behind is heart-wrenching,” Vogel said.

Tribal communities in particular are often hesitant to collaborate with researchers on climate adaptation projects. Historically, they haven’t been given sufficient reason to trust government solutions, and since being cut off by NOAA this month, they will likely be more skeptical of these collaborations in the future, Vogel explained.

UW prioritized CIG for state funding during the 2025 budget cycle. However, due to budget deficits, CIG didn’t receive the requested funding. The group has some support from the state, but the majority of their funding is sourced directly from the federal government or through federal funds that have been distributed to state and local agencies.

Prior to the May 5 termination notice, CIG calculated that 60% of their total work relied on federal funding. NCRC represented less than half of that amount, meaning approximately 35% of CIG’s work is still at risk of future cuts.

CIG experienced similar funding cuts in 2009, when they lost federal funds for another CAP program. In that situation, the group refocused on state and local partnerships. The present funding cuts, however, occurred unusually abruptly and granted CIG no warning or time to prepare.

“We’re not going away,” Vogel said. “But this is a big hit.”

Reach writer Abigail Meyers at science@dailyuw.com. Bluesky: @abbymeyers.bsky.social

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